Tempus Viator
by Harmonee
Summary: 'Mione/Time Travel tale. For the greater good, she travels back in time knowing there is no way back. She is all set to change history and make all things right. Rated M. Thanks to my beta Shortscribbling for making my story better.
1. Decisions

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. If I would have then I wouldn't be writing here :)**

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Hermione bit the end of her quill and flicked her hair back in frustration. She knew for sure that she had read the uses of Shrivelfig, but she just couldn't remember the thirteenth or the fifteenth use of it. She knew that she had a week's time to submit the potions essay but it didn't stop her from being irritated at herself. 'Ten uses of Shrivelfig used in Potions.' Hermione looked at the heading and scratched her head with the end of the quill.

"Hermione… Come soon, something's not right." She heard Ron call out for her; pushing back her essay, welcoming the distraction she saw him running into the common room, immediately attracting everyone's attention. He covered the distance with his long legs and was instantly next to her, tugging at her arm until she stood up. Once he was sure that he had got her attention he turned around and started walking back out of the common room with Hermione running behind to keep up with him.

"What's wrong, Ron?" Hermione asked him running with him, looking at Ron's pale face. She turned back and saw the other students who were with her in the common room following them both in groups.

"What's happened, Ron?" she asked again, but stopped when she saw the commotion in front of her.

"It's Harry," Ron said, unnecessarily pointing at the crowd in front of them. Hermione nodded silently and followed Ron through the crowd, pushing everyone else out of her way with Ron's help.

"Hermione…" Harry called out for her the moment he saw her. Hermione pushed herself through the students and reached Harry's side.

"Harry what hap-" Hermione started, but stopped when Harry showed his half visible and half invisible hand to her; visible till his wrist, but that was where it stopped.

"Harry…" her voice trembled, she tried to hold his right hand hoping, praying it was a prank, but her hand came into contact with nothing but air, his hand was not only invisible, but it wasn't there. The students around them gasped at the scene in horror.

"What's happening to me Hermione?" he asked her, looking at the girl who was still staring at his still invisible hand. Hermione stayed rooted there, but then shook herself out of her stupor. She nodded and took his visible hand. "We have to go meet Dumbledore," she mumbled, pushing everyone and making her way to Dumbledore's office holding Harry's hand in a hard grip.

"Chocolate frogs," Hermione murmured to the gargoyles; she watched as they sprang apart in a daze and went up the stairs with Harry walking behind her. She hazily remembered that they had left Ron behind in the crowd and she felt a slight stab of guilt for leaving him to handle the others but she quickly shook it off. Her head wasn't quite working right. _His hand, Harry's hand it wasn't there. How could that be possible? It wasn't invisible – it was as though it had been erased. _She was panicking and she knew it, but she also knew that the only way this could happen, the only way something like a body part could be erased was if someone – no that was not possible. "It was just a joke: Dumbledore would fix it. Everything will be just fine," she repeated to herself, tightening her grip on Harry's hand furthermore walking up the stairs. She saw Harry knock on the door and entered the office, following him.

"Professor Dumbledore…" She called out for him, trying to calm herself, feeling Harry's sweaty hand tighten around hers.

"I expected you here, Miss Granger and Mr Potter," Dumbledore said from his chair, looking old and worn, watching both of them over his glasses.

"Dumbledore, I don't know what's happening," Harry said softly as his eyes flicked to his invisible hand again.

"I knew something like this would happen," Dumbledore said softly, looking unusually sombre instead of his usual twinkling self.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked sharply, looking at him.

"Harry, have you been forgetting some things, like memories from your past in the last couple of weeks?" he asked, ignoring her question. Harry just nodded, his eyes wide open, frightened.

"Just as I had expected," Dumbledore said to himself, nodding.

"Professor…?" Hermione asked, feeling a cold chill fall over her '_Oh Merlin! How can this happen?_'

"The reason Harry is losing his memories and is disappearing is because Voldemort has sent someone into the past to change the course of history…but you already knew that didn't you Ms Granger?" Dumbledore asked.

Hermione nodded mutely. Dumbledore looked at the both of them and said, "I am afraid this is just the beginning. Slowly he will start forgetting incidents from his past and once he loses his full memory, he will vanish into thin air." He said gravely and Hermione gasped her eyed welling in unshed tears.

"Voldemort!" Harry said with disgust.

"Why didn't you do anything about this?" he demanded.

"I knew he was up to something, but I had no proof," Dumbledore answered.

"So what now, what can we do now?" Hermione asked as Dumbledore fell quiet. Harry went rigid, listening intently.

"I am sure you know what has to be done now, Ms Granger," Dumbledore replied.

"What?" Harry asked looking at Hermione to Dumbledore and then back to her.

"Someone has to go back in time to stop it from happening," she said, "and I will be the one to do it." She immediately looked at Harry, daring him to disagree.

"You know what is going to happen once you go back in time, don't you Ms Granger?" he asked her.

"Of course, Professor," she said flatly.

"What is it? What happens to her?" Harry spoke up.

"There is no way back, Harry. Once I go back in time there's no way I can come back," she said quietly.

"No, you aren't going," Harry immediately disagreed.

"Harry –" she said softly as she looked into his stubborn, wet eyes.

"No," he repeated, adamantly.

"Harry, I love you okay? You are the only family I have left and you're like my brother and I just can't let you disappear into thin air; I can't just sit and see you like this, pretending that you were never there, okay? I have to do something," she swallowed, her heart breaking at the thought of never seeing him again.

"What about me huh, if you are gone then I will be alone… again," he whispered.

"That's not true! You have the Weasleys, the whole school, Ron and Ginny, you're engaged to her, Harry! Think of her of how she will feel you aren't here anymore. You will be fine without me and besides, no one will notice that I am gone," she said forcing a chuckle as she kept her tears in check. Before she could speak again Harry took her into his arms and held her tight.

"Don't tell me that 'Mione, everyone is going to miss you," he said softly. He looked down at her and asked her, "How can you ask me to do this, 'Mione?"

"Harry, please…" she whispered, wrapping her hands around him.

"No, no, no, no, no…" he murmured against her neck. She rubbed his back trying to soothe him.

"Harry, please!" she almost begged him.

"Don't leave me Hermione," Harry choked.

"Okay, okay," she agreed stepping back from his embrace "Okay, I won't leave, we'll just have to find other solution; we'll all hit the library as soon as possible and find something." She smoothed out his hair nodding about to walk out of Dumbledore's office with Harry. Just before she left she glanced at Dumbledore and pushed a thought into his head, "_Today midnight, be ready." _and followed Harry out.

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"You will reach there on the 31st August, in the evening in order to explain the situation to me. You will be attending your seventh year. I am afraid you can't be the head girl there," Dumbledore said as he stood in front of her. She nodded mutely.

"Are you sure, Ms Granger? As you know, there is no way back. You cannot return." Dumbledore said, looking into her eyes.

"I know professor, but I can't lose Harry and now that I have a chance to change it, I will do my best to do everything right so that Harry can grow up happily with his parents." Dumbledore just nodded.

"Professor, who do you think has gone to change the past?" she asked him.

"I am not sure Ms Granger, but if I had to name one person it would be Draco Malfoy."

"Malfoy… but why?" she asked her brow furrowing lightly.

"From what Severus has told me, Voldemort has threatened his family dead, if he is unable to do this. Ms Granger, I know you dislike Mr Malfoy, but you should know that he isn't simply bad, merely misguided. I believe that he was taught all the things from his childhood and hence moulded as he is."

"So you're saying that he may be able to help me to defeat Voldemort. Do you think he can overcome his hatred towards me and the muggleborns and his loyalty towards his parents and Voldemort?" she asked as she shifted in her seat.

"Ms Gran— Hermione, you obviously know that Voldemort has killed his parents and if Mr Malfoy actually knows this I am sure he would help you. Severus has also informed me that he didn't want the dark mark, it was forced upon him against his will."

"Sir are you sure that we can trust Professor Snape?" she blurted out, but looking at Dumbledore's face, she immediately wished to take back her words.

"Yes, and I am pretty sure you will understand the reason for that too, at the right time."

Hermione nodded and accepted that. "Are you ready Hermione?" Dumbledore asked her.

"Yes sir. Sir, do you think I will be able to do it?" she asked softly wishing to be reassured.

"I believe you are the only person who can. You have just finished your Auror training with Harry and Mr Weasley and you are one of the best duellers I have seen in a while." He said with a smile on his face.

"Thank you sir. Sir, before I go, please give this to Harry tomorrow," she said as she handed an envelope to him.

"Of course Ms Granger, now after you reach your destination you will have to give this letter to my younger self in order for him to help you. Good Luck." He bowed his head. Hermione got up and bit her lip. She suddenly walked forwards and hugged the surprised Headmaster before taking a step backwards to down the potion Dumbledore himself had prepared. She closed her eyes, saying goodbye to the world she knew.

_Dear Harry,_

_I think you have already figured out why I am writing this letter to you. I have decided to go back in time. I couldn't just not do anything and there is no other way. I know you hate me – I would hate me too if I was in your position, but Harry, I cannot just let you fade away. This was the only way out. You are the only family I have left now and I can't let you go._

_It is not like I won't see you again. I will surely be there when you are born and during those Hogwarts years. Just remember that I am always with you. Always._

_Please, do try to forgive me. I love you more than you can ever imagine._

_Love,_

_Hermione._

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	2. Bloody time travel

**Disclaimer : Not mine.**

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"Aaghh… that's just nasty." Hermione mumbled flapping her hands as if blind until she could hold onto the first solid object at hand. "I think I may have to sit down for a moment," she said to herself, lowering herself slowly, her head spinning. She dropped her head on her palm, her elbows resting on her knees, feeling the nausea settle down. "Bloody, time travel!" she murmured.

She heard murmurs and a polite cough, she looked up and saw Dumbledore, McGonagall and some other professors, some she recognized and some she didn't, all standing around her and all of them with their wands out except Dumbledore. Looking at him, she immediately strengthened her walls and looked straight into his eyes; she noticed the slight shock when he couldn't read her mind and gave him an impish smile of her own in response.

"Professor Dumbledore…" she said, getting up slowly. For that moment, it felt as though she was back in her time, in his office.

"Miss…" He paused, waiting for her to fill in, but she just stared at him with wide brown eyes. "Miss…" he tried again and she blinked a couple of times before she spoke up: "Hermione Granger, Professor."

"Miss Granger, you seem to have an advantage over me, while you seem to know who I am, I am sure I don't-" Hermione took out the envelope from her pocket and handed it to him before he could complete this sentence.

He took the letter from her hand and looked down at it, staring without opening it. "I think you should read that first, Sir."

"Very well, I would like to read this in private. Let us talk more about it in my office, shall we?" Dumbledore said turning around, but before he could take another step Professor McGonagall spoke up, "Are you sure Albus? Maybe this should be done here," she said, looking at Hermione suspiciously.

Hermione pushed away the hurt she felt when McGonagall looked at her with distrust. "I won't hurt him, Professor," she said softly before walking out of the room with Dumbledore following behind her.

They both walked in silence with Dumbledore always a step behind her. She came to a stop in front of the Gargoyle and waited for him to tell the password. She then followed him past the Gargoyle, up the stairs. She waited until he sat down before sitting down opposite. He didn't open the envelope immediately, like she had expected, but instead he looked at her with his curious blue eyes. Then she felt a soft whisper, almost a caress against her walls and her widened eyes immediately went to Dumbledore's curious, large eyes.

"It's rude to peek, Professor," she said, narrowing her eyes slightly. Dumbledore looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes and then nodded and opened the envelope. She looked around and saw the sorting hat sitting on the stool at the side and also saw that the stand where Fawkes sat was empty.

"Is it Fawkes Burning day, Professor?" she asked still looking at the empty stand covered in ashes.

"You know of him then?" he asked. As he finished with the letter he looked at her with hooded eyes. Hermione nodded looking around his office in silence. After a minute or so she finally looked at him, waiting for him to speak up, but he didn't, he just stared at her, looking as though he were trying to solve a puzzle. "Sir…" she started, unable to take the silence any longer, but stopping, biting her bottom lips, not knowing what to say next. Her eyes strayed to the opened letter. "Do you believe the letter, sir – that I am from the future?" she asked, hesitantly.

"Yes," he said simply, his eyes flickering from her and then back to the letter. She waited for him to continue, but he didn't. The silence prolonged and her leg twitched with impatience.

"Is there something you want to ask me, Miss Granger?" she heard Dumbledore ask. Surprised she looked up and her cheeks darkened when she saw him looking at her with amusement.

"Nothing…" she mumbled, she dropped her head and her hand found the chain around her neck, she fiddled with the phoenix charm on it.

"Very well, but pardon me, I do have questions for you. You see I am very intrigued and curious now." He paused and Hermione looked up at him.

"Curious…sir?" She frowned.

"Yes, well I wanted to know the reason you travelled back in time?"

"Isn't the reason written in the letter?"

"Yes, but I would much rather hear it from you."

"Well, you see my best friend, Harry, is in trouble or will be in trouble…" she shook her head and continued, "Well according to… the future Dumbledore, Voldemort-" she saw Dumbledore's eyes widen, "has sent someone back here and that person is trying to change the past… umm that's now, anyway you understand right sir?" she saw him nod so she continued, "So I agreed to come back ... go back in the past to stop it from happening." She muttered, nodding to herself.

"You did all this for your friend, Harry; even with the knowledge that there is no way you can go back to your time?"

"Yes sir. You see, I am the perfect candidate for this. I already have experience in time travel and my parents are dead. Me, Ron and Harry were given Special-Auror training. I have a photographic memory, so I remember pretty much what I see, and you see I'm really not that popular. I'm only known because I'm Harry's friend, so I knew that if I did this no one would really care that much," she said shrugging, with averted eyes, trying to hide the hurt in them.

"Auror training?" he asked.

"Actually sir, it was your idea; you proposed that we three had to be trained as we have to face Voldemort, and we were more than ready to agree."

"You called him by his name…Voldemort," he said after a moment.

"Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself," she said idly smiling a little. Dumbledore copied her.

"Why are you three so important to Tom?" he asked her.

"Because I am muggle born, best friend of Harry Po- never mind. Ron Weasley is pure blood, also best friends with Harry and Harry is the only one who can kill Voldemort, according to the prophecy; he is the boy-who-lived." Hermione saw the change in Dumbledore's face when she said that; from calm and curious to highly aware and then to something which she couldn't identify.

"Prophecy, Miss Granger?" he questioned.

"Yeah, made by Sybil Trelawney, who went on to become our Divination professor."

"And he is titled as the-boy-who-lived?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah, the first time Voldemort attacked his parents and him, he was only a year old. Voldemort first killed his dad and mum and then him or rather tried to kill him; you know, Avada Kedavra, but he survived," she said shrugging.

"Pardon me, but I think you just told me that your friend Harry survived Avada Kedavra- the killing curse."

"Yeah, but you see that made him a Horcrux," she said wriggling around to be more comfortable; she had a feeling that she would be here for a long time.

"Horcrux… you know about them," he said. Hermione nodded in silence.

"So Horcrux do exist, I was right then. Who else knew about them?" he said to himself.

"You told the three of us and it was kept between us only. He made seven of them," she said nodding back at him.

"Seven?" Dumbledore repeated in disbelief. Hermione nodded and kept quiet, giving him time to process what she had just told.

"And when did he start make the Horcruxes?" he asked, bending forward slightly.

"His first Horcrux was made in 1942 - the summer before his sixth year. He killed his father and grandparents for abandoning him. Harry was the sixth Horcrux, so to defeat him first we have to destroy the first five Horcruxes," she said solemnly, looking outside the window; the sun had set and it had already turned dark, her mind numbly registered that this time tomorrow she had to face the Marauders and Lily and so much more.

"And how do you plan to help your friend, Miss Granger?" Hermione bit her lip and then answered softly, "You see professor, Harry's full name is Harry Potter, son of James Potter and Lily Potter." She said as silence welcomed her sentence.

"I knew they would get together - after all opposite do attract." Hermione heard him murmur with a fond smile on his face.

"How do you think this other student would try and change that past?"

"I am not sure about that, but I am planning to find out. Professor, Harry has suffered so much so this is the least I can do for him; he was like, no, he was my brother. He took care of me after my parents were tortured and killed by the death eaters: day and night," she ended in a whisper. She saw Dumbledore nod. He started to say something, but he stopped; he frowned and looked outside the window. The moon had risen and by the looks of it, it was well past midnight.

"You do know Ms Granger that the moment you made up your mind to go back in time, that very moment you started changing the time line. The past or our future as you knew it exists no longer."

"Yes, I know."

"Changing the future is not an easy thing."

"I understand Professor and that's why I will need your help," she said, smiling a little.

"I will be with you every time you need," he replied simply.

"I didn't realize it was so late," he said and Hermione nodded in agreement.

"I know we have much, much more to talk about, but all of it will happen in its due time," he said smiling at her and Hermione curtly nodded in response.

"Very well then, tomorrow you will join us and will get sorted again. You will be starting your seventh year, and I will place you with Lily in her dorm."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now I think it's well past bed time. Forgive me for keeping you so late out of bed."

"No worries professor," Hermione said, getting up from the chair and heading towards the door. At the frame she froze.

"And professor I was wondering whether you will be informing the other professors about me too?" she asked, biting her lip lightly.

"I will be informing Minerva as after all, she is the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. But I do think you are capable enough to choose who you want to tell the truth amongst the students," he said and Hermione smiled in return. She nodded her head in understanding.

"Miss Granger!" Dumbledore called for her as she took another step towards the door.

"Yes Professor?"

"I am so very proud of you," he said with a gentle smile on his face.

"You are?" Hermione asked in a whisper, a smile upon her face and tears in her eyes, "Thank you."

She smiled and walked towards him, touching his hand on the desk she said, "Sir I think you should soon start The Order of Phoenix, or as soon as you can." With that she walked out of his office with him watching her thoughtfully.


	3. First Encounter

Hermione woke up on the sofa in the common room feeling achy all over. "_Time Travel really sucked,"_ she childishly thought, rolling her stiff shoulders. Sighing she held her head between her hands, blinking back the tears, her mind wandering to Harry and Ron. "_I can do this."_ In less than twelve hours she was going to meet Harry's parents, Remus, Sirius, Neville's parents, the traitor Peter and all those to-be or already death eaters and she had no idea how she would handle seeing them all alive and happy.

She shoved those thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on other things. She had to go buy her books and some clothes and then meet with Dumbledore again. Grumbling she got up and stretched her back, trying to get the kinks out of it – a result of her sleeping on the old, worn couch. With her wand in her hand she set out to her dorm where she cast 'Engorgio' on the bag she had earlier packed.

Taking a quick bath and tying her hair into a braid, she made her way to Hogsmeade and indulged herself in the bookstore. After a day of procrastinating she walked up the stairs to Dumbledore's office in her new uniform, just one hour before the feast. Dumbledore was sitting on his chair when she entered. He motioned towards the chair she had been sitting in the previous day and waited until she became comfortable.

"How are you feeling today?" he asked, once she was settled.

She sighed loudly and then smiled at him. "Not that bad. I had body aches in the morning so I took a numbing potion. Who knew time-travel could cause pain as an after effect?" she mused to herself.

"So I heard you left the castle today," he said, shifting the topic slightly.

"Yeah, to Hogsmead to buy some necessities. I was in and out in an hour or so. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you I met Hagrid, he helped me get the items back to the castle. He was surprised to hear me talk to him, it was funny. Back in my time me, Harry and Ron used to talk to and visit Hagrid all the time." There was a moments silence before she shifted the topic to a more serious one.

"Professor Dumbledore, I was wondering about the Horcruxes."

"And I," he said nodding his head.

"Don't you think we should get on with it? I mean start retrieving them from their places and destroy them."

"We will Ms Granger-"

"You can call me Hermione, Professor," she suggested.

Dumbledore smiled and continued, "We will, but first we need to find them. Now, I was wondering if you knew where they were or are."

"Well we only found two of them. The first was the diary Harry destroyed in his second year. It's quite a story actually – you see Harry was..." Hermione snuggled into the old worn chair and reminisced about the year they destroyed the first Horcrux unknowingly.

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"Fascinating." Dumbledore said in wonder as Hermione fell silent.

"Yeah, it sure is something," she agreed and saw him suddenly stand up. She got up slowly, grabbing her wand concealed in her cloak, suddenly alert.

The door flung open and Professor McGonagall came in, her lips pressed thin in anger as she looked from Dumbledore to her. She too looked at him and saw his eyes twinkling in amusement. Bewildered she again looked at Professor McGonagall, with a frown on her face.

"Professor-" she started slowly having no idea at all about what was going on.

"Ah yes Minerva, You already met Ms Granger yesterday. Ms Granger I have informed her about your … predicament but sadly she is still quite suspicious of you," Dumbledore said introducing them.

Hermione looked at her and said, "Professor McGonagall I understand you being a little uneasy about it, but l can assure you that I am telling the truth, in fact you were my favourite teacher... in my time," she said wincing as she heard what she just said, "That doesn't mean that you won't be mine this time too..." she ended it, shuffling awkwardly. She sneaked a look at her face and saw a light smile near her lips which she had learned to identify when she was in her third year.

Releasing her breath in relief she smiled back. "Nice to meet you Ms Granger," McGonagall said nodding at her before turning towards Dumbledore.

"Albus, if you weren't planning to attend tonight's feast which has been put on hold just for you, you should have warned me earlier." Her face was full of disapproval. Hermione's eyes widened in shock and looked at her watch.

"I am so sorry, Professor. I completely forgot about the time and now you're late. It was my fault," she said.

"No worries Ms Granger. Suffice to say I too was very fascinated with our conversation." he said with a smile, "But let's not waste any more time and make our way to the Great hall, where you first will have to be sorted," he said flicking his wand as her Gryffindor emblem vanished from her robes. She nodded and followed Dumbledore and McGonagall.

As they reached the hall, Dumbledore stopped in front on the doors and motioned McGonagall to carry on. He turned and looked at her. "Don't be nervous child, everything will turn out fine," McGonagall said giving her just enough time to nod and pull herself together before he walked into the hall with her following him.

Hermione kept her head down and her walls up and stood next to the Sorting hat. The hall fell silent as soon as Dumbledore had entered. She could feel the eyes on her and knew that one of the sets of eyes would be Draco Malfoy's. She was tempted to look for him but she didn't. The first years had already been sorted, everyone waited in silence waiting for Dumbledore to begin.

"Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I am extremely sorry that I am late this year to invite you all. But as they say better late than never. We have a new student this year and I know that Transfer students are not common, but do try to make her feel comfortable here. Her name in Ms Hermione Granger and she will be starting her Seventh year here."

He looked at her and then nodded. She took a deep breath in and sat on the stool with the sorting hat on her head.

"Well, Miss Granger, It is a nice surprise to see you here." The familiar voice on the Sorting hat was heard in her head.

She smiled and agreed "I never thought I would be hearing from you again."

"Funny, how things work out. Now let's see where I can place you the best again. Intelligence in spades, the key criteria for Ravenclaw, though apparently I have told you such before. Hardworking and determined and your loyalty...your loyalty knows no bounds, does it Miss Granger? Very Hufflepuff of you. Then there is your ambition and resourcefulness and cunning when needed...that is the Slytherin in you too, Miss Granger. But that bravery and nerve and the drive to get on with it and finish it...I see why I ultimately placed you in Gryffindor. And I think I would repeat it this time again. Good luck child: may you succeed for what you have come for."

"GRYFFINDOR," the hat said aloud. She quickly got up and headed to the Gryffindor's table sitting in the first empty place she could find. Letting loose a shaky breath she dug out her necklace and rubbed on the phoenix charm. She could hear talking and whispering all around her between friends, she could also feel some curious eyes on her too and heard her name being whispered now and again.

Being here in the great hall, between unknown people, made it harder to put away the memories of Harry, Ginny, Ron, Neville and Luna, all having fun. Faces of her friends and her surrogate family, the Weasley's, kept on flashing one after another in front of her eyes. The memories came rushing in, drowning out all the noise and stares.

She gasped out loud breathing in as much air as possible, holding onto the tables with her blunt nails digging into the wood as she painfully closed off her mind to everything and concentrated on a void space. She concentrated so hard that she missed the polite throat clearing from the students sitting next to each other or a few 'Heys' and 'Hellos' too.

She felt someone nudge her, so she looked up and saw the Marauder's looking at her with undisguised curiosity. Lily and some other girls sat at their sides. She could feel the tears prickling in her eyes. She pushed them back. No, she couldn't allow herself to cry, not in front of all these people. She breathed in and breathed out until she felt control within her reach. She looked at them once and turned away, finally understanding she didn't want to talk to them they left her alone.

Nodding to herself she loaded her plate with food without any interest and dug in. Her eyes kept moving, looking from one student to another, sizing them up in her mind. She recognized a few of them, some as the members of the Order of the Phoenix and others as the future Death eaters. Her eyes again fell on James, to Remus to Sirius and then to Peter. She was using her Auror training, analysing them without getting any personal feelings in between, but as soon as she saw Peter, her jaw clenched as did her fist around her fork.

It was personal, she realized. How could it not be? She looked at him and had to hold back in order to refrain from harming him. She couldn't not feel anything, she couldn't keep it impersonal between her and them, she understood. She had to get away before she did something she would regret so she pushed her plate away and got up. She was walking towards the door when she felt it. She felt a mild push in her mind. She stopped walking and turned around. Her eyes danced from one person to another, and again she felt a push, harder this time. She could see and hear the students looking and talking about her, but she paid them no attention, too busy finding the culprit.

She was about to give up when she felt one more push against her walls and then suddenly she was looking at the person she knew so very well, with blonde hair and grey eyes. His shock of seeing her here mirrored hers. She was looking straight at Draco Malfoy. She gasped out loud, her gaze never wavering from his.

"Are you alright?" she heard someone ask her. She just nodded keeping her eyes on Draco. She felt cold and pity for him, remembering what Dumbledore had told her. She wondered whether he even knew that he couldn't return back to their time and whether he knew about his parents.

She looked at him, and pushed into his mind and found similar walls like hers. She was secretly impressed. He looked so normal sitting on the Slytherin table between some boys she didn't recognize. She pushed against his walls, harder with much more force than he had applied on her. Keeping her eye contact with Draco's she walked back until she was out of the hall.

"_We have to talk."_ She pushed the thought into his head and then broke the eye contact and ran to the Gryffindor dorm, trying to run away from reality.

* * *

Hermione tossed around in her bed, restless. Her body ached all over. Her body and brain were begging for rest, but sleep wasn't her friend for that night. After she ran into the common room she immediately went up to her dorms and settled in her bed. She had changed into something more comfortable without being choosy, closed her drapes and silenced her bed so no one could disturb her. She really wasn't feeling friendly. She heard the girls coming in one after the other and she could hear her name tossed around a few times between them and then not long after the room quietened down as everyone settled to sleep.

It was three in the morning she finally gave up on the thought of sleeping, she was even tired of lying on the bed, her thoughts were full of her last six years in Hogwarts with her friends, and it was starting to irritate her. Cancelling the spells surrounding her bed, she picked up her bag and tiptoed out of the room and into the common room. She wriggled herself into the sofa right in front of the fireplace and sighed. She stared at the fire and lost herself in her thoughts again.

"Hey." A voice shook Hermione from her revere. Wand in hand she turned towards the voice and aimed. She saw James sitting in one of the couches with his hands up, a smile playing on his lips. Breathing in a shaky breath she calmed herself and brought her wand down. Hermione was stunned at the similarities between Harry and him. She just smiled not sure she could say something without a catch in her voice.

"So you're the new girl?" He started trying to have a conversation with her. She just nodded.

"You were really quiet during dinner," he said after a few seconds of silence. Hermione nodded again.

When he was sure that she wasn't going to say anything he said again looking chastised, "I'm sorry I didn't know that you couldn't speak."

Hermione chuckled to herself and shook her head "No, no I can speak." James looked at her with a look she couldn't really place and then smiled a sheepish smile.

"Sorry about before…with the wand, it's a habit," she said, shrugging.

"I'm sorry too, I just thought that you couldn't- I mean you weren't speaking during dinner and now too," he said.

"Well new school, new people and I really didn't know what and whom to speak too," she said, her gaze returning to the fire place.

She looked at the watch and saw it was three-thirty. "What are you doing here, shouldn't you be sleeping?" she asked as she looked at him.

"My roommates, they snore," he said, making a face as she chuckled.

"What about you?"

"Just missing my friends, that's all," she said in a small voice.

"Then why did you leave?" Hermione bit her lip; she looked at James for a second then returned back to the fire.

"I had to," she said simply.

He saw her yawn and then said, "You should sit with us tomorrow for breakfast."

"Us…?"

"Me, Sirius, Peter, Remus; they're like my brothers," he said.

She hid her disgust when she heard Peter's name but then smiled as she listened about the others. "Of course, but I should be going now, I'm feeling quite tired. I don't want to doze off during classes, especially it being the first day," she said and then took out a bottle from her bag and handed it to him.

"What is this?" he asked, looking at the bottle suspiciously.

"Dreamless sleep potion. It helps with the nightmares and it looks like you need it," she said looking at the dark circles under his eyes.

"How did you know?" he asked getting up as she turned to go.

"It's quite obvious, blood shot eyes, dark circles under your eyes, my best friend Harry looked the same way you do when he had nightmares and it happens to me too. See you tomorrow." She bowed her head and left with James looking after her in silence, his eyes wide open in shock.

* * *

She didn't know when she fell asleep, but when Hermione woke up the next day she could already hear whispers in the room. She sighed and groaned pushing herself up and sat on the bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, her body protesting and wanting more rest. She ignored her body aches and opened up the drapes to look around the room.

She saw Lily looking at her smiling. "Good morning."

Hermione smiled hesitantly looking at the so familiar green eyes. "Good morning."

"So introductions..." Hermione tore her gaze from Lily to a blonde girl, sitting on her bed in a night dress. "I'm Alice..." she said pointing to herself and Hermione instantly registered her as Neville's mother. "That's Dorcas," she whispered, pointing to the girl who was still softly snoring, "Melody is in the bathroom getting ready and this is Lily, the head girl." Hermione nodded and smiled at them.

"I'm Hermione Granger, I'm sorry I couldn't introduce myself to you last night, I wasn't feeling well."

She saw them nod and Lily said, "It's okay we understand." Hermione smiled in return. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and groaned out load.

"Are you feeling okay?" she heard Alice ask.

She took her hand off her eyes and nodded. "Just a head ache."

With a sigh she decided to get up and get ready for the day she really wasn't looking forward to. "I'm going to go get changed and head for breakfast," she said giving them a small smile and then went for her bath.

She entered the hall with her head buried in a thick, well-read book.

"Hermione..." she heard her named call and looked up from her book and around from her spot in the Great hall as she walked. She saw James motioning her towards him and gesturing to sit next to him. She nodded and smiled, walking towards him and the others.

"Sleep well?" she asked.

James looked at her for a moment then nodded his head. "Yeah thanks." She caught him smiling faintly at her.

Hermione saw Remus look at her with curious eyes and she smiled at him. "Don't I get a smile?" Sirius asked her and looked into her widening eyes, causing him to chuckle.

"Oh! Hermione, these are my friends I was telling you about; this idiot here is Sirius, the one who's looking at your book with greed is Remus and the one who has already started to eat is Peter." She smiled at each of them, awkwardly especially as she finally looked at Peter.

"Hello." She smiled at them. Her hello was returned by a round of 'Hey' from all of them.

"What are you reading?" Remus asked her, his eyes attached to the book.

"Umm, all the curses and jinxes created to date," she said shrugging. She saw Remus' eyes widen with interest. "I'm almost finished with it; if you want, you can have it," she chuckled, pushing the book towards him.

"Really?" His eyes widened immediately and he started to flick through the book.

"Yeah," she chuckled when she saw the smile on his face. Hermione bit a piece of her toast in silence when Remus spoke up, "Hey, this is yours."

Startled she looked up and saw the photograph he was holding. Her eyes widened but before she could take it, James plucked it from his hand. "Who are these guys?" Sirius asked looking at the photo of her in between Harry and Ron, both were holding her down and tickling her.

"Oh! I forgot that was there," she mumbled looking at the photo. She was saved from answering them when Lily, Melody and Alice entered the hall and immediately headed towards her. Lily sat next to Remus with Melody beside her and Alice sat next to James.

"Good Morning!" Lily said with a smile on her face.

"Hey Lily," James replied quickly. "Lovely morning isn't it," he added with a goofy grin. Lily's smile dropped and she quietly whispered to Hermione, "I wish."

Hermione shook her head, grinning and looked at Melody. "Hey," she said to her and introduced herself. Dorcas ran into the great hall, her hair flying all over the place and dropped down next to Sirius to eat.

"What do you have here?" Alice asked James, taking the picture from him.

"Pass it here!" Dorcas called out, after gulping down her cup of coffee. Melody and Lily bent over the photo and giggled. "Who are these two guys?" Lily asked giving her the photo back. Hermione looked down at the photo and sighed. "My two best friends," she said looking at it with a soft smile.

"What are their names?"

"The red hair one is Ronald, but everyone calls him Ron and the other one is Harry, he's just… Harry." She sighed again.

"Where are they now?" Sirius asked looking over her shoulder.

"They're dead," she said getting up and taking her timetable from Professor McGonagall before making her way to charms.


	4. Frenemy

**Hey all, I know this chapter is unbearably short, but do bear with me. I promise I will submit a longer and a better chapter next time. And also I need a BETA for this story, so if anyone is interested tell me.**

_**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series is property of JK Rowling-No Copyright Infringement Intended**_

* * *

Hermione pushed open the door of Charms classroom with her shoulder and absentmindedly picked the seat which was neither at the front nor at the back on the class. She flung her bag next to her onto the wooden bench and sat down on it. The headache seemed at it worse now and her body too ached with pain. She thumped her forehead with her fist and with little disgust she realized she was crying when her palm came in contact with the tears. She wiped off the tears angrily with her palm, laid her forehead on the table and dug her nails into her palms. _Pain was better than tears,_ she said to herself. She picked up her head from the table and saw the picture had fallen from her bag on to the floor when she had dropped on the table; she slid down and picked it up.

Her breath caught as she picked up the photo of the three of them. _We all looked so happy_, she thought, _even in the midst of everything going on. _Her heart ached looking down the picture. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the table again. She could so easily see the expression on Harry's face when she told him about the time-traveling into the past. She knew he would be unbelievably angry with her but he would understand after some time and she was sure of that. After all, all that she had done was for 'Greater Good' she thought wryly.

She felt them before she heard the others entering the room in groups and taking up seats all around her. Then she felt someone sit next to her and her bag being pushed slightly. Without lifting her head up, she opened her eyes and saw James sitting next to her from the corner of her eye. He smiled at her when he realized she was looking at him and turned towards her, leaving Sirius to talk to someone else.

"Hey, you didn't finish your breakfast." He commented scooting over, closer to her.

"I wasn't hungry." she replied shrugging.

"Hermione, I am sorry we all invaded your privacy. We shouldn't have asked you about the picture."

Hermione smiled, surprised at the apology and shook her head "You have nothing to be sorry about; you didn't know what happened to them." He simply nodded and then again started to speak when _Professor _Flitwick came walking into the room and stood up at the podium especially made for him. Looking at him, Hermione couldn't help but feel some kind of familiarity. He was about to start when a group of Slytherin boys came stumbling into the class, She could easily recognized Draco and Severus from them as they rushed in and took their seats.

"Now that everyone is here, let's begin your first Charms class for your last year here. We will start with something easy..." He went on saying and demonstrating the hand movements of the Cheering charm which Hermione had already learned. But Hermione's attention was fixed on Draco who sat with Xavier Mulciber busy discussing with each other, barely paying attention to the class.

"James..." she whispered his name. James looked away from Professor Flitwick to look at her. Squashing away the guilt she felt for making him not pay attention to the class she motioned towards Draco and asked him "What's his name?"

James sneaked a look at Draco and said "That's Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy's cousin. Slytherin." He said in obvious disgust.

"Do you know him?" He asked her when he saw the look on her face as she looked at Draco.

"Yeah, long time ago I did." she said forcing her to look back at the professor and concentrate back at the class.

"So I am guessing he isn't much of a friend." He continued.

"No he is not a friend, but not an enemy either."

"Frenemy?" James said smirking.

"Something like that." she agreed nodding her head. When she saw that he was looking at her with a weird look she continued then "Okay so you know children walk on the paths their parents wants them too, no matter how absurd or sick the path is, because that's how we are taught. And sometimes, the parents grill some... ideals into them no matter how wrong they are. And when the child does walk on that path, it's not really his fault." she said to herself "It's his parents because the principle is the same for my family as it is for his. Sure you can't completely blame the parents but they do effect you. Because I too do things and behave with others the same way my parents taught me too. So one can't really blame him about how he behaves to others. Right?" she said as she sneaked a peek at Draco.

When she got no response, she looked at James who looked at her with his jaw slightly slacked. "James...?" she called his name out.

"You are right." He mumbled in return. "You are so right, I... I never realized it like that, until now. "He said with a smile. She returned his smile and looked at the professor just in time to hear that they could start practicing the spell.

Wand in her hand, she looked at James. Pointing her wand at him she said "Fortuno." with the others.

* * *

The next time Hermione spoke to James was at the dinner. She had missed lunch on purpose; instead she had spent that time in the library going through some Defense Against the Dark Arts old edition books. She had planned for an early dinner and then she thought she would sneak off to her dorm and spent the night their avoiding the others, but the plan was rudely interrupted when James came and sat next to her when she had just started to eat. Barely avoiding groaning out loudly she closed the book she was reading and set in aside. Sipping a little of her pumpkin juice she turned slightly on the right he looked at him. She saw Remus and Peter sit in front of her and Sirius sitting on the other side of her.

"Are you stalking me?" She asked him as she barely kept her irritation in check.

She lifted one eyebrow and waited for him to speak up. "You know, I always wanted to do that." He said looking at the raised eyebrow with vivid interest ignoring completely what she had asked him.

"Aah..." Sirius groaned from beside. Shifting slightly she turned towards him and frowned. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Ugh, James is like a hyper toddler, show him something you can do which he can't, and he will be behind that for the next many days until he gets it right." Sirius said. Hermione looked at him with uncertainty.

"He is right." Remus said from across her, nodding at James who had was already trying to look at his right eyebrow and rise while pressing down his left one.

"Last year, Sirius here accidentally whistled at a g...at someone and James didn't know how to, since then every awake moment he tried whistling. It went onto for four days when at last he learned it." Peter said squeakily as he bit into his dinner.

Barely able to hide her disgust towards him she turned towards James and saw him doing the exactly the same thing with his eyebrow except this time his tongue was sticking out too.

"Four days for whistling?" she asked in a faint voice. They three nodded together.

"Wow, I am sorry. I didn't know he would be so..." she trailed away.

"Yeah, don't worry. You are new here." Sirius said dismissively. She nodded in reply and watched Lily, Alice and Dorcas come into the hall immediately coming towards them as they saw her.

"Hey, how were your classes today, first day and all?" Dorcas said as she sat next to Remus.

"Fine." she said as she watched a light red coloring on Remus's cheeks and saw him shift towards Peter a little. He saw her looking and his eyes widened. He quickly took out the book she had lent to him and buried his head in it.

Smiling to herself she shook her head, from the corner of her eyes she saw Lily looking at her. She turned at her and smiled. Lily smiled back and said "Umm, we are sorry about today morning."

As she said that, the others fell silent and looked her in obvious apology. Hermione stiffened at the reminder and then forced herself to relax. "It's okay." She said trying to brush it aside. When no one spoke up, she said again with some force "Its fine, seriously guys." At that the others nodded in understanding.

"How were your classes?" Hermione spoke up after a while when no one had continued their conversation.

"Fine." "Good." "Horrible." Came the response from them. Hermione sighed and said "Look, it is not your fault. You were perfectly right in asking about them and it was kind of my fault. I should have handled it better and shouldn't have snapped at you all."

"Tell us about them." Alice said in a timid voice. She thought about Harry and Ron; she missed them so much that it was worse than the physical pain she was feeling. She started about them when tears filled her eyes. She could hear the others silent next to her and other students coming into the hall for dinner.

"I can't" she said simply looking up from the table to them. She dabbed her eyes and sighed.

"Don't worry; when you are ready we will be here to listen." James said simply turning back to his dinner.

After dinner, Hermione had retreated back to her dorm confined to her room where she slept. The disturbed sleep and the body pain had finally caught up with her and she just collapsed on the bed barely changing a shirt stolen from Harry and some pants.

* * *

It was around four in the morning when Hermione sat up in her bed suddenly gasping for breath, her shirt clinging to her body with sweat and hair sticking to her face. She searched for her wand and waved it instantly the drapes around her opened. She got down from the bed, pulling her hair into a bun went running down the stairs.

Choking on a sob she sat heavily on the sofa in front of the fireplace. The fire had almost died out except some burst of embers the common room was silent. Rubbing her face with her hands she snuggled into the sofa, with her legs up. She conjured a blanket to cover herself and took a deep breath. The dream was so real she could still fell the cold weather and stings of spell which had hit her. Rubbing her hands together she closed her eyes and leaned back.

She felt so tired and wanted to just give up and then her mind turned towards Harry and she just knew that she couldn't just give up.

She heard the portrait which lead to the common room open and saw Sirius come it, almost tripping over the carpet covering the common-room.

"Fuck." he murmured to himself as he caught himself just in time. He brushed her palms against his pants. His shirt was un-tucked from his pants and was buttoned wrong, his tie was wrapped around his left wrist and his pants were hanging low onto his hips.

Hermione raised her eyebrow at him and smirked. He hadn't noticed that she was there in the room. He swaggered into the room and slummed into an old worn out chair directly adjacent to her. She kept quite and continued looking at him, she knew from where he had just come, looking at the smirk on his face and his clothes there was no doubt that he was coming from a girls room. After a while when Sirius sighed out loud she decided to speak up.

"Where are you coming from?" she asked softly.

Hearing her, Sirius immediately looked at her and flinched slightly and questioned her back "What are you doing here?"

"Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin?" she asked avoiding his question.

"You do know it's almost four thirty, right? Why aren't you asleep?" he asked her.

"Which year was she in? Please don't tell me third year." she fired back. Both of them avoided the others questions and fell silent.

"How about we mind our own business and not answer the questions?" Sirius finally said relaxing into the sofa.

Hermione nodded but the smirk on her face didn't fade away. She had seen Seamus, Dean and even Ron come into the common room like a thief after spending a night with some girl and really didn't feel so surprised as she had seen Sirius come in, after all she had heard the stories, of him being a 'woman's man' was one way to put it.

She heard Sirius sigh again; she looked at him and saw him looking back at her. Keeping her face blank, she stared back at him. He suddenly smirked and lifted his hands and laced it back behind his head. She still didn't speak up. Sirius suddenly leaned slightly in front and said "See something you like?"

That was it, just hearing that, she couldn't stop her lips from twitching and when she saw his face, his eyes heavy, looking at her giving her the 'look' she couldn't help herself. She bursted out laughing, hands over her stomach she bended slightly and then looked at him. Looking at the shocked look on his face, she lowered her face and closed her eyes laughing like she had never had before. After a few seconds of laughing she felt drops of water falling on her hand. Opening her eyes she patted her face and realized that she was crying and laughing at the same time. She shifted slightly and looked at Sirius who was looking at her with a blank face.

She quickly patted her face dry and wiped her hands onto the blanket and looked at the dying fire. She fiddled with the blanket pulling out strings from if when Sirius cleared his throat. She looked up and saw him smile. Biting her bottom lips she didn't know what to say, how to explain why she was crying earlier, she tried saying something but it always ended up in her throat.

She pulled at her hair she had come out of her bun and looked at him.

"How about we both go to our bed and take a nap, we have barely two hours till breakfast." he said getting up and coming in front of her.

She looked at him in silence and nodded with a small hesitant smile "Yeah, good idea." she rose up and made her way to the steps when she turned back and saw him standing at the same place as before looking at her.

"Sirius, do take a bath." she said looking at him from top to bottom with an exaggerating pace. Sirius barked a laugh at that and nodded.


	5. Ferret and mud blood

**Hey guy's so here's a new chapter. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed.**

* * *

It was finally the weekend, Saturday and Hermione was more than happy in welcoming it with pleasure. It had been six days since she had 'travelled' and since then she was trying to avoid the marauders and Lily and the others without much success.

She had spent all her time in the library. She was more than happy as she successfully avoided the others the whole day that was until dinner. She was walking towards the Gryffindor common room when a student came up to her.

"Yes." Hermione said when the second year stood in front of her looking at her from below her eyelashes.

"Miss Granger?" she asked, Hermione simply nodded in return.

"Umm, Professor Dumbledore wants to talk to you."

"Okay, where is he?"

"The Great hall." she said. Hermione nodded and took off, with the second year trailing behind her. "Thank you." Hermione said just as she entered the great hall. She turned towards the staff table and looked at Dumbledore, who was sitting right in the middle. As she was walking towards him, she saw James wave at her from the table, she waved back and continued walking until she reached the headmaster.

"You wanted to speak to me, Professor?" she asked Dumbledore as he bent down slightly so that she wouldn't have to speak loudly.

"Yes, Ms. Granger it's come into my notice that one of your classmate has been asking around about you. And he has made some specific allegations towards you. Now Ms. Granger if this person doesn't take back his words I would have to take some severe actions and will have to investigate about it." He said.

After a few minutes of silence she spoke "And this person is not a Slytherin, is he sir?" she asked as she saw Draco talking to someone she couldn't identify.

"That maybe correct, but as you know I really can't talk about it." Dumbledore replied but he nodded his head at the same time.

"I will deal with it Professor." she said straightening up.

"Soon, Ms. Granger."

"Yes sir." She nodded at him and turned walking towards the door, already planning what to do next.

"Hermione." she heard someone call out for her. She turned slightly and looked at Remus with her book in his hand waving at her.

Sighing in frustration she walked towards the group. Forcing a smile on her face she extended her arm towards Remus without saying anything to anyone.

"What were you doing with Dumbledore?" Peter asked her curiously.

"Something personal." she answered with a snap. Then she heard same laughter coming from behind her. Turning around she saw that there was a crowd near the middle Slytherin table. Standing on the top of her toes she tried looking and then she heard them talking loudly.

"... red hair weasels staying in small house they named as 'The Burrow.'" Draco finished with a smirk and whole table bursted into laughter.

Hermione's heart raced when she understood that he was talking about her friends. She took a deep breath and tried to wave away the anger she felt approaching her but couldn't stop it; she seethed in anger hearing the laughter bubbling through the tale. Taking out her wand, she held it tightly in her palm and then started towards them, then stopped suddenly when she heard Draco continue to talk about Harry. "And her friend Potty, he thought he was merlin walking on earth. He thought that girls would fall all over when he passed by, too bad no one told him the truth, not even his parents you see because they were killed by... Grindelwald." This time there was no outright laughter except the few but cruel ones.

She felt as though her heart fell into her stomach, tears welled up in her eyes but she overcame them by the unbelievable anger she was feeling at the time. She walked towards him trying to rein back the anger; a few feet away from she stopped and spoke up to him in louder than her normal volume. "Why don't you tell them about yourself Malfoy... or shall I say ferret?"

"Granger." He said, Hermione saw his shoulders tighten beneath his cloak and he got up from his seat stiffly and turned slightly towards her so he was looking directly at her.

"You have no right to talk about them, Malfoy." She said softly. "You know better."

"What are you going to do then, complain to your parents... oh! Wait I forget aren't they dead too, mud-blood." He spat out at her. She heard a sharp intake of breath behind and saw that James and Sirius with others joining her behind her.

"Don't say that word." James said shaking in anger. She could see the professors making their way towards them. Knowing the situation was going to get out of control very fast she refused to raise to the bait, instead she smiled at him.

"That's getting old, Malfoy." She said smirking. The smirk changed to a smile when she dug out a piece of paper from her bag and handed to him.

She leaned forward so that she was near his ear and laughed softly. "Read it and then come talk to me." she said her mind going to the piece of paper she just gave him. She turned around and walked away passing the professor, and then she stopped and turned around to look at him. Draco was looking at the folded piece of paper.

"Draco, I am sorry." she said and saw his head jerk towards her and dread creeping into his eyes, nodding at him she pushed into his mind past his defense "Talk to me when you are ready to listen the truth." and headed to the common room.

* * *

**_Malfoy's No More_**

_A month of Draco Malfoy's suspicious disappearance last night the Malfoy Manor was bunt down to ashes with a magical fire. It is suspected that Lucius Malfoy and his wife Narcissa Malfoy were entertaining some guests while the fire struck. Unfortunately none of them could escape the house and is not confirmed of their death by the fire._

_The magical world is mourning at toss of like and as one of the most prominent pure bloods. Aurors have been assigned to this case and they are working towards to kind the suspect who had fired the spell. The left behind magical residue is being worked. The Daily Prophet will continue to inform its readers as the investigation furthers._

_Rest in Peace Malfoy's._

* * *

"Hermione, wait...Hermione." she heard James run up to her dorm not wanting to talk about what just happened.

"James, I am tired." Hermione said almost whining. What she actually needed was a good cry, just sit on her bed and let her tears free.

Turning around to meet him she swallowed a groan when she saw that he didn't come alone. She saw The Marauders, Lily, Dorcas and Alice behind him coming up. James pulled her to the sofa and sat next to her. The common room was buzzing with what had happened. The story was being told and retold to each other and to those who weren't their to witness it. Pushing back the irritation she felt she looked at James and waited for him to question her.

She kept on staring at him till he broke and said scratching his neck "Stop staring at me, its creepy."

"Let's get this over with, ask me." she said and the room fell into a buzz shamelessly eavesdropping.

"How do you know Malfoy?" Dorcas asked. She was sitting next to Remus and had to lean into him to see her.

"He is a...friend."

"That today did not look like friendship." James murmured.

"Remember what I told you James." She murmured back to him.

"Friends don't call friends names." Sirius said looking at the fire.

"Yeah well he is going through a bad time. We always had a love and hate relationship... more like a bitch and hate." she said smiling.

"Look guys, there is nothing wrong, you shouldn't worry about anything." she said getting fed up with the questions.

"Sorry about your parents and friends." Alice said a while later. Hermione smiled at her.

"Thanks, now if you are done, I want to go and get some sleep." she said getting up and making her way to the stairs which lead to her dorm. She could easily envision her soft and warm bed and couldn't wait to be in it.

"He called you a mud blood, Hermione." Lily said softly.

"And I called him a ferret." Hermione said turning around and rolled her eyes, then she saw the anger on their faces "It's okay, it not a big deal. It's kind of like a ritual, you know he calls me mud blood and I call him a name." she said smirking at the looks they were giving her.

"Do you even know the meaning of it?" Sirius demanded.

"Of course I do, I am not an idiot Sirius, but you know there are other things I was worried about other than getting angry on someone calling me a name, like the war, my friends and my parents so forgive me if don't start crying when someone calls me names." Hermione said looking at them and then making her way to her dorm.

* * *

Next day during breakfast Hermione was joined with the others, she didn't even bother sighing. It was clear that she had been avoiding them but still... shaking her head she re-read the line and continued on trying her best to ignore the chatter around.

"What do you keep on reading always, here show me." Sirius said plucking the book from her hands.

"Hey, idiot. Ask first then take." She said glaring at him.

"Idiot is your favorite word, isn't it?" Peter squeaked out.

Ignoring him she took a bite of her buttered toast and washed it down with pumpkin juice. "This is quite advance, where did you get t from."

"Library, this book is for Auror training, it has all the information in it." she explained.

"And why are you reading this?" Dorcas asked her.

"I was bored, picked it and it's quite interesting and I also wanted to know some new spells." she said shrugging.

"Lend me." James said to her looking at the book. Hermione nodded.

"So, what do we have today first?" she asked looking at Remus.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts." he said.

"Yeah you know what I heard that today we are going to lean to duel." Lily said excitedly.

"Duelling." Hermione murmured and her stomach felt full of butterflies, her hands shook when she held her glass. Gulping down she got up "We should go." she said and made her way.

They were five minutes early and were standing outside the room waiting for Professor Avery. "Hermione." James whispered to her. She opened her eyes and looked at James, he tilted his head and Hermione followed his eyes. The Slytherin's were coming up from the hall, she could easily see Malfoy walking with him, laughing and making fun of some Gryffindor it almost seemed like he didn't read the paper she had given it yesterday but then he saw her and his eyes went wide. She could easily read then, guilt, fear, anger, hope and then mostly sadness.

She took a step forward, closer to him. "Malfoy." she said pushing her hair back. She heard the door open and the students going inside.

"Granger, what you gave me yesterday... is it true?" He asked few steps away from her.

"Yes, I am sorry." she said biting her bottom lip.

"Well I don't believe it, or you." He spat out.

"Malfoy, that was on Daily P... Papers." She stumbled. "And do you really think I would lie about something like that?"

Malfoy started "Ye... No, no you wouldn't. But doesn't mean I believe you." he argued back. Hermione nodded in acceptance and said "When you want to see-" she pressed on it "-talk to me."

He nodded in acknowledgement and went inside the room with the other Slytherin's following him. She saw Snape looking at her with interest and immediately strengthened her walls.

"What was all that about." Peter asked when she turned around.

"Hopefully something." she said giving a smile to James and Sirius who had stayed behind with her and entered the room.

* * *

P.S- Anyone who wants beta this story, do let me know.


	6. Dueling

A.N: Hey readers. I hope you love this chapter. I have to tell you all that the next chapter will take a little time to come out. But I promise it will be worth it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry potter.

* * *

"Are you okay?" James asked from beside her.

As soon as she had entered the room, she spotted an empty desk and immediately went for it. Dropping the bag on her lap she pressed her fingers to the nape of her nose and breathe in and out form a few seconds.

"Yeah, just a headache." She said taking out parchment and a quill from her bag.

James looked unconvinced but nodded and looked at Professor Avery who had just come into the room. "Now, I am sure that most of you already know that we are having your first dueling lesson today. Now, first some questions. What do you mean by a duel?"

Hermione waited for someone to raise their hand and answer. She knew for sure Remus knew the answer to it. She looked at him and signaled him to answer, he just yawned in return. She rolled her eyes and then nodded when she remembered that full moon was only a few days ago. Sighing she raised her hand. Professor Avery smiled and nodded at her.

"A duel is a confrontation between two or more wizards and witches." she said.

Professor Avery smiled and rewarded her with five points. "Yes, In a duel the combatants face each other, bow, and then attempt to disarm, injure, or kill each other in order to force submission, and thus a winner is decided. But now I hardly think we should worry about the killing part. I am going to split you into two and you and your partner will come here, in front of the class and duel each other. You will only use disarming spells to win your duel and continue onto the next round, this will keep on going till the last one disarms their partner. One must either disarm or incapacitate their opponent let's keep this clean." he said looking at all he students.

He motioned everyone to stand at the side of the room and cleared the room of the benches. Standing there Hermione concentrated on her breathing, She had to remind herself that she is not an Auror, not in a war. She would have to concentrate of keeping the spells in a check too. Sweating slightly, she took her robe like the others and started folding her sleeves up. The professor sorted the students into twos, Hermione with Snape, James with Dorcas, Remus with Sirius, Peter with Draco, and Lily with Lucius.

Professor Avery first called upon James and Dorcas first. They both went in between the room and stood opposite to each other. Professor waved his wand to form a protective circle around them so that no stray spell could anyone else. "Bow." He said to the both of them.

They both bowed, "Begin!" Professor said and then immediately their attacked each other.

_"Petrificus Totalus!"_ James said flicking his wand at her before even Dorcas could shout out a spell.

Dorcas barely put up a shield in front of her. _"Stupefy!" _she cried out.

_"Protego!"_ James said in return. The two shot spells at each other form the next two minutes or so then with quick concession James said _"Impedimenta! Expelliarmus!" _catching the wand in the other hand he pushed the hair out of her face and walked towards Dorcas and gave her wand back. He said something to her for which Dorcas threw her head back and laughed and got up with James help.

"Very good." Professor said. "Next Draco Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew." The duel between them ended as soon as it started. Malfoy casually flicked his wand and said _"Petrificus Totalus! Expelliarmus!" _and duel was over. Next professor called upon Sirius and Remus which was something she was looking forwards too.

The spells fired between them were friendly and comedic like causing hair or boils to grown all over the face or changing the color of the uniform to green. The end result was when Remus targeted Sirius's 'precious' hair and Sirius taking the bait covered his head when Remus disarmed him.

Professor Avery just smiled and shook him head as the whole class laughed and hooted during their duel, he then nodded at Hermione. "You are next, Ms. Granger and Mr. Snape." nodding at Sirius who wished her best of luck she went to the clearing. She saw Snape stand opposite to her. She focused on her breathing and closed her eyes for a second to re-group herself.

"Bow." She heard professor say.

_No, no, no, no, no, no!_ She thought as she opened her eyes and bowed keeping her eyes on him. "Begin!" Professor said and immediately they both started shooting spells at each other.

"_Reducto!" _She said immediately flicking her wand at him.

"_Protegro!"_

She flashed her wand and yelled, "Stupefy!"

Snape waved the spell away almost lazily. Looking at him Hermione felt getting irritated as time passed. She tried to block the feeling away but she couldn't. Sighing almost irritatingly she spelled out _"Confringo!"_

She saw Snape's eyes widened and he barely escaped the spell, the spell lightly grazing the side of his shirt. _"Diffindo!"_ He spat back at her. But Hermione was getting used to the rhythm. _All those months of exercise had finally paid off _she thought smugly.

Easily avoiding the spell she fired back "_Expelliarmus!"_

"_Incendio!" _He said pointing his wand at her.

Flicking her wand away, _time to end this_ she thought to herself. _"Expulso! Furnunculus! Glisseo! Impedimenta! Expelliarmus!" _she fired one after the other. She held her hand out and caught his wand and took deep breathes. She then realized the silence around her. Lifting her head up she tucked her hair back and saw everyone looking at her with wide eyes except Malfoy who was fiddling with his wand.

Looking at Snape getting up, she immediately went towards him and handed out his wand, "I am sorry." she said biting her bottom lip slightly and held out her hand to for him.

Snape looked at him from between his bangs then took her hand and got up, dusting his pants. "Bloody Gryffindor." he said under his breathe. Hermione heard him and raised her eyebrow at him. He mimicked her, "Good work." He said with a smirk, gave her a bow and went back to his table. She went to her's and then turned slightly and looked at Professor Avery. He saw her and smiled with a glint in his eyes and said "Very well done. That was very impressive."

"Impressive? That was bloody brilliant!" Sirius said wrapping his arm around her.

"Where did you learn dueling like that?" Remus asked her curiously. Shrugging she thanked merlin when Professor said that they were free to go. "I will meet at lunch." she said already working her way to the door. She heard then calling out her name but she didn't turn around.

* * *

She needed to fight more, she realized. To fire spells at something, without causing any harm to someone, to do anything other than cry and feel guilt and hide from everyone. She made her way to the Room of Requirement. She looked at the wall opposite the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet. Tucking her bag higher onto her shoulder she walked in front of the wall three times thinking about a place where she could practice fighting against dummies. Immediately a door appeared. She stepped in and dropped her bag on the floor. She looked around the room and saw dummies lined up against the opposite wall.

_Just like during Dumbledore's Army_, she thought looking around. Shaking herself off her stupor she took out her wand from her holster.

"Ready." she said to the room and the said "Now." and almost instantly one of dummy stepped forwards and started firing spells at her. At first she didn't attack, she just jumped from one place to another or bent slightly to avoid a spell form hitting her then after a few minutes when her blood started running through her body and felt that rush of adrenalin she started firing spells at the dummy, once a dummy was defeated or blown away by Reducto another one would come and take its place.

* * *

Almost an hour later she realized that she had almost missed lunch. Thinking about her promise that she would have lunch with James and Sirius, she got up picked up her bag and ran to the great hall. Sweaty and out of breath she sat down and immediately loaded her plate and dug in. Looking up she saw eyeing her.

"What?" she asked once her mouth was empty. "Do I smell?" she asked narrowing her eyes.

"No, just what happened to you?" Remus asked curiously.

"Nothing, I just went for a run." She said shrugging, lying so easily.

"Well you never really told us, how did you learn to duel so well?" Lily asked cutting into her chicken neatly.

"Well, the place where I come from, the war is at large there and our professors didn't really teach us properly how to defend ourselves so we students decided that is up to us to learn. And we did just breaking hundreds and hundreds of rules but we learnt how to defend ourselves for things out there so that if we were to take participate in it, we wouldn't be invalid." she said carefully looking at them.

"So did it work?" James asked her.

"Did what work?" She asked.

"Did you take part in the war?" Sirius asked her.

"Oh! Yes. So did my friends." she said taking a deep breathe.

"And?" Remus prompted.

"And?" she asked innocently as speared a piece of carrot with her fork.

"Don't act dense, Hermione." James said nudging her shoulder.

"Okay, Yes I fought the war with my friends. Yes I lost my friends in that war and no, we didn't win, their happy." she said huffing slightly.

"I am sorry." James said wrapping his hand over shoulder and pulling her towards him. Shaking her head she rested it over his shoulder and closed her eyes.

"It's okay." she murmured to him and he squeezed her shoulder.

After a few minutes of silence then Sirius spoke up, "So those rules you broke..." he left it hanging suggestively.

Kicking his calf slightly she heard him yelp "Shut up." she said and shuffling slightly trying to find a more comfortable pace on James shoulder and fell asleep.

* * *

"Hermione, get up." Lily shook her slightly waking her awake.

Hermione grumbled and sat up in her bed. "Hey, what time is it?" She asked her in a hoarse voice.

"Almost time for dinner." She said sitting next to her on the bed.

"Oh! I missed the afternoon classes."

"Don't worry, James told McGonagall that you were not feeling well. You were excused." Lily said with a strange look on her face.

"Oh!" she said and got comfortable. "I have to thank him for it."

"Come on then, let's go for dinner." Lily said hastily getting up. Hermione nodded at her and got up.

Hermione picked up her speed when she saw James standing near the table. "James." she called out his name.

"Hermione." he said smiling at her.

"Hey, I just wanted to say thanks." she said giving him a short hug. She saw the slight flicker on Lily's face when she did. She smiled to herself.

"It's, fine you needed sleep. I know how it is. Come have dinner." he said pulling her with him. She nodded at him and sat next to him.

Hermione was going back to the common room with them when Sirius asked her to stay behind. Looking at him curiously she nodded and waited when the others were a few feet away from them.

"So, what do you want?"

"Well I don't know how to tell you this..." he trailed away.

"Just get on with it." she said rolling her eyes. Sirius nodded with a smile on his face.

"So, be James fake girlfriend." Sirius said wrapping his hand around her as she started to walk away. Stomping his leg and flicking his on his forehead she said "No, idiot." and walked away shaking her head.


	7. Hedwig

Hey guys so I know this chapter in small and I am already working on the next chapter and I guarantee it will be longer than this. Do read and review.

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Hermione's birthday started with a nightmare which was the first sign that that day would be just as bad for her. She woke up sweat covered, tears running down her face and shivering.

Thank Merlin; she had remembered to place a silence charm on her bed yesterday night before she got into bed. She sat up covered herself with the quilt, bunched on her legs and gave herself time to recover. She waited till her tears didn't roll down her face; she never kept her tears blocked in her bed. It was the only place where she would allow herself to cry. She lay down sideways curled into her and allowed to remember the dream.

_She was with Harry and Ron. They had already destroyed all the Horcruxes and were waiting in Hogwarts with the Aurors, waiting for the war to start. One moment she was hugging everyone goodbye and the other moment they were firing spells at the Death-Eater trying to locate Voldemort._

_She tried to keep Harry and Ron near to her, but failed when she heard Bellatrix's awful laugh. She immediately turned towards the voice and followed it. _

"_Stupefy!" she yelled aiming at Bellatrix who was cursing a man on his knees. Bellatrix waved her wand to counter the spell and cackled "Using spells like these during a war, Mud blood."_

_She shifted her attention from the man to her and corrected herself and said "To be dead Mud blood." _

_Hermione didn't waste her time in answering her back instead she shot back a non-verbal "Reducto!" spell. Bellatrix countered it with a "Crucio!" which Hermione had just missed by a breath's length._

_Hermione was startled when the man near Bellatrix's feet screamed and she saw that. Bellatrix was stamping down on his hand with the foot of her heel, with her full weight. The man's hand was bloody and it was then when she was hit by a stinging spell on her shoulder. Cursing herself for being distracted she rolled her left shoulder, she clamped her lips together to hold in her scream she shot "Confringo!" to her which managed to hit the target._

_The sudden scream from the man distracted her, she took a step forwards and towards her right, hoping she would mimic her and leave the man alone, sighing when she didn't, she shouted "Expulso!". Bellatrix waved her wand and intercepted the spell before it could reach her. _

"_Incendo!" she retaliated and Hermione couldn't move away this time. The spell was directed to her stomach, feeling the burn she fell down of the ground and heard Bellatrix say "Expelliarmus!" and her wand fell out of her reach._

_Feeling the burning feeling spreading from her stomach to her legs and neck she curled down into herself. "This is where you belong, bitch." she said showing her teeth to her and kicked her. Hermione wrapped her hands around her as she heard her say "Crucio!" _

_The next thing she felt, she couldn't describe it. The pain from the burn didn't even compare to it. She tried not to scream out loud, but being under the spell for more than ten minutes she couldn't stop herself. She screamed till her voice broke, till her throat was raw, till her throat felt that it was on fire and couldn't make any more sound. Tears fell from her eyes. She cried and hoped someone would listen to her. She screamed until all she could hear was her screams. She closed her eyes blocking out everything else._

_The pain._

_Oh! Merlin, the pain; she would have done anything to stop it._

_Anything. _

_And at that moment, she came to know the meaning of death. She yearned for it. She wanted to die. It was no wonder that people go mad when they endure this spell of hours together. She could see herself going mad with pain. She wanted to die. She wished someone would just put her out of the misery. _

_Gathering the little strength she had she forced open her eyes, she saw Bellatrix say something to her, laughing as she displayed her teeth to her. She couldn't hear her and wasn't even in the state of mind she would have understood even if she heard her. She felt the curse stop on her. She gasped out welcoming the numbed which fell all over the body, except the twitching of her fingers she was still. She felt Bellatrix kick her in the stomach, she doubled over whimpering aloud and opened her eyes and looked at her. Bellatrix spat the ground where her head was resting and pointed the wand at her face. She knew what was coming next and she realized that she welcomed the spell. She closed her eyes, said a silent goodbye to everyone and smiled when she heard her say "Avada Kedavra!"_

_She quickly opened her eyes and saw the green spell coming at her and smiled slightly._

* * *

Hermione was the only seventh year on the Gryffindor table. She kept her head bowed, hiding her puffy red eyes from everyone. She wasn't in a mood to explain to anyone. She played with her toast, breaking it into small pieces and then breaking it again until she could do no longer. Sighing out loud she forced herself to eat it. She was in the middle of buttering the second toast when lily and Dorcas sat on the either side of her with Alice and Sirius next to them and James, peter and Remus on the other side.

She dropped her head lower and bit into the toast.

"Are you all right?" Remus asked her leaning forwards and bending slightly to get a better look of her.

"Yeah you don't look so good." Peter added biting into the sausage he had held.

"Geez, thanks Peter." Hermione said rolling her eyes at him. Peter flushed in return stuffed his mouth.

Shaking her head at him she said "I am fine, don't worry about me." And took another bite off her toast. She lifted her head and saw that James was looking at someone behind her. Turning slightly she saw Draco hovering behind her. Frowning at him, she got up and waited for him to walk up to her.

"Draco..." she started but trailed off having no idea why he was their.

"Granger-" he said then stopped and cleared his throat and then continued "Happy Birthday, Hermione." And pushed something into her hand and made his way to his table.

Hermione stood their in shock, stunned not about him wishing her but he had called her Hermione for the first time. She sat down and and looked at the covered box in her hand.

"You didn't tell us that its your birthday today. You should have mentioned it." James said looking at her.

Hermione looked at him, away from the box and shrugged but was saved from answering when they all a huge light forming right in the middle of the hall.

"Is this some kind of a prank?" Hermione asked them never taking her eyes off the...thing.

"No." James, Sirius, Remus and Peter said at once.

The light grew in size and silence fell over the hall and an owl flew out of it. The owl circles around once over the four tables and then makes it way towards the Gryffindor table.

Hermione's eyes widened in realisation as she saw the owl flying towards her. She quickly looked at Draco and knew that he understood too. She stood up and held her hand forwards and called out "Hedwig!"


	8. Hope

**Hey Readers, ****Here I am again, with a new chap for you, hope you like it. Do Read and Review.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing from the HP world, all of it belongs to JKR.**

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_Hermione's eyes widened in realization as she saw the owl flying towards her. She quickly looked at Draco and knew that he understood too. She stood up and held her hand forwards and called out "Hedwig!"_

* * *

It was too late when she realized that she was carrying a Howler which was on the verge to explode. Hedwig dropped the letter in front of her and then sat on her am, hooting softly. Absentmindedly she started to pet her as the letter bursted open and Harry's voice drifted into the hall.

_Hermione Jean Granger,_ Hermione gasped when she heard Harry's voice. Her eyes filled with water and Hedwig flew to her shoulder. Fisting her hands, she tried to keep her tears at bay. The letter now came and hovered in front of her and continued speaking.

_I can't believe you did it! I mean you promised me, 'Mione. But I should have known you would do it. Remember during our Fifth year you said that 'I have a saving people thing' well you were wrong, you have it._

Hermione gasped and nodded as she chuckled. She took the napkin Lily offered, whispering to her a soft thank you. Dorcas slid her hand over her shoulder and squeezed it in silence comfort.

_Merlin 'Mione, I miss you. You should have at least given me a little time so that I would have been prepared. Imagine my surprise when I get up the next day and I come to know that you are gone. Aaghh, I am so mad at you. I mean did you ever realize how I felt about it. One day you are telling me 'let's go the library and find the answer' and the next moment Dumbledore tells me you are gone._

Hermione gasped when Harry mentioned Dumbledore's name. She shook her head at his mistake and hoped no one would ask her about it. She stared at the wooden table, shying away from all the gazes on her.

_I '_saw' _what you told to him about no one missing you, well you are wrong, everyone misses you Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, the whole D.A. and me too. You were my family 'Mione. I know, I know what you are going to say about me having Ginny and Ron and others but it's not the same. Bloody hell, 'Mione how in the world you can think that no will miss you!_

Silent tears flowed down her eyes landing on the table. She shook her head. She wanted to hug him Harry and tell him that she was so sorry. She could hear the pain in his voice, her heart hurt for him. There was a small pause before Harry's voice came again.

_But… But as much as I miss you and I am angry at you, I have to tell you that a selfish part of me is glad that it was you who went and I can't thank you enough. And whatever you are doing their, keep on doing it; because it's working._

Hermione smiled at that and wiped the tears odd her cheeks and continued listening.

_I just hope I could talk to you, hug you once more, 'Mione but Professor Dumbledore said that I can't contact you after this. It's too dangerous for both of us and we both can't risk it. He says it disturb the balance of 'you know what' and he said something about being the 'The better good" which is absolutely stupid. _There is a small silence and then he said _sorry professor._

Hermione gasped when he called Dumbledore stupid but the gasp turned to a laugh when he apologized for it. The letter turned 180 degrees and spoke again.

_And Draco, I am sorry about what happened to your parents. You mother was always nice to me. I also do understand why you did it, I only hope you would realize the truth too and help Hermione. She is quite stubborn, when she says she doesn't need any help that is the perfect time to help her. And never tell she is wrong about anything related to facts and knowledge, because she is always right and Draco, remember our third year._

Hermione chuckled at that shook her head, a blush covering her cheeks. She looked at Draco and saw him looking at her with a smile playing on his lips and bowed at her. Rolling her eyes at him she concentrated to the howler.

_I have to go now, I don't know how to say good bye to you so I won't all I can say is I will see you again and you have to promise me to tell everything and I mean the whole thing, 'Mione._

_P.S. – Save them, Hermione. Do it for me, save them for me. And also have fun, I know about your crush, do something about it._

_Your best friend,_

_Harry Jam—_

"_Silenco!"_ Draco said before the letter said the full name. Looking at him she said "Thank you." to him. He read her lips and nodded in return and made his way out of hall. Looking around for the first time since the howler she noticed that the great hall was full of students and all the professors were present too. She could have easily guessed that they were talking about her. Her classmates were looking at her and talking with in themselves.

Shifting slightly feeling a little awkward due to all the attention she looked at the people who were sitting next to her. Still gripping the napkin lily gave her and thanked her for it. Breaking the silence James was the first one to question.

"You told us your best friend Harry was …" he trailed off didn't know how to continue.

"Dead…Yeah, he is dead." Hermione said almost as if, to make herself believe it. "He must have asked someone to send today." She muttered to herself as absentmindedly she petted Hedwig.

"What's her name?" Alice asked her looking at the owl trying to change the subject.

"Hedwig, she is – was Harry's familiar." She corrected herself.

She could see the others staining to hear her answers too, sighing to herself she got up and said to them "Let's talk about this later." and made her way to the Owlery.

* * *

After spending some time with Hedwig and feeding her some owl treats, she left the Owlery and was walking back from the Owlery when she was a lone figure standing. As she neared she saw Regulus Black. She abruptly stopped, shocked at seeing him. He was standing with his legs crossed and with his back being supported by the wall. He was looking at her now, she forced herself to walk towards him unconsciously her hand immediately went to her wand and she neared him.

She could just hear Moody say _Constant Vigilance_ to her.

He looked amused knowing he had managed to Shock her. She kept quiet and looked at the infamous RAB and without thinking she was already comparing him with Sirius. Same black, thick hair, same eyes, he was maybe an inch or two shorter than Sirius. Beside some facial and physical features they both would have be twins.

"Granger." He said bowing his head her. Biting her lip she stood a few steps from him and then walked nearer to him and stood next to her. His eyes widened at her unexpected movement and she said "I prefer Hermione. I don't have to guess your name."

"Yeah, me and my brother do look similar." He said running his hand through his hair and looked away. Hermione didn't she stared at him until he looked at her too, she didn't try to shy away instead she looked right into his eyes waiting for him to say something.

"What do you think about house-elves?" she asked him randomly when he didn't answer.

Regulus jolted and looked at her "House-elves? Why are we talking about them?"

"That's because you haven't said anything in last three minutes." She said shrugging pointing looking at the opposite wall.

"I just wanted to say that I am sorry about your friend." He said shrugging and started walking away. Hermione waited until he was few steps away when she called out his name. He stopped but didn't turn and she said "If you want to talk about anything, you can talk to me."

"Why would I want to talk to you." He asked.

"You don't need to but I am just saying that I am here to listen." She said walking past him.

Hermione was preparing herself to be bombarded by questions, she had successfully avoided them the whole by hiding out in the Room of Requirement but she knew she had to face the music. She had just reached the Fat Lady when she saw Draco standing their waiting for her.

"What is with people waiting for me today?" she asked standing in front of him. Draco didn't answer her just looked at her in return, Hermione furrowed her eyebrows took a step near to him looked at him in his eyes and asked him "What's wrong?"

"I am sorry that because of me you had to travel back in time." He said at last.

"You are not to be blamed, Draco. I saw that Voldemort threatened you to do it." She said standing next to him, their shoulders just touching giving silent comfort.

He sighed out load and said in a rush "I am sorry for teasing and calling you names too and I am sorry that you had to leave your friends."

Hermione stayed silent for a while soaking in what he had just said and the said with a smile "It's okay, I left them behind but at least I have you, right?"

Draco didn't answer just shifted a little closer so their shoulders were touching as he leaned slightly towards her. She smiled in return feeling hope bloom inside him for the first time she came here.

* * *

It was well past midnight and Hermione was sitting in front of the fireplace with Lily, Alice, Dorcas, James, Remus and Sirius. Peter was mysteriously missing and Hermione had a pretty good idea where he was. They had waited for the common room to be empty for Hermione to speak up. They didn't pressurize her to say anything but Hermione wanted to talk about it, she wanted to share, and she couldn't keep it to herself. She passed on the photo of Harry, Ron and her together she had between them.

"What happened in third year?" Dorcas asked excitedly.

Hermione cracked a smile and started with the confrontation between her and Draco which had everyone laughing.


	9. Help

_**Hey Readers, Thanks for all the reviews, it made me feel all wiggly and tingly inside and I love that feeling. Keeping on reading and do review too.**_

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"I need your help." James said loudly as he sat down next to her. Dropping his bag on the floor with a thump he looked at her with wide expectant eyes.

"Shhh..." she shushed him as she pulled out of the book and looked around to see if the librarian was around. "You are in a library, James. Talk softly or Madam Hector will throw us out. " she chided him softly.

Grinning sheepishly at her he nodded and continued in a lower voice. "Help me Hermione."

"What's the matter?" she said taking a breather, book marking the potions book she was going through. James took a few deep breathes and then was silent for some time before he said anything else.

"Well you may know that I am interested in Lily-" He started but Hermione cut him off.

"Really, what gave it away? The flowers Lily receives flowers from you every morning and then she throws them away without a second look or how you ask her out for every Hogsmead outing and she refuses you before you can even finish, every time or how you announce to her that you want to take her out in the Great hall in front of everyone." She asked dryly.

"Okay, Okay I get it I haven't been subtle about it." Hermione snorted at him. Ignoring her he continued "But It's not like I had some help either. As you know Sirius and Remus aren't really that great at relationship advice. But now you are here and you are my friend so it's your duty to help me."

Hermione was silent for a moment and then spoke up "Why?"

"What do you mean by why?" He asked avoiding eye contact as he started to fiddle with her book which was on the table.

"Don't act like an idiot, James. Why do you want me to help you?" She explained to him hanging on to the last of patience she found within her.

"Because she is the only one who doesn't want to be my friend because I am handsome or rich or a pure blood, because in front of her I can be myself and she doesn't have any problem in telling me that I am wrong, because I know we are meant to be together and because I am already falling a little love with her with each passing day and because... because she completes me." He finished in a rush looking at her with pleading eyes just like Harry used when he wanted something from her.

She looked at him for a moment and then nodded at him "Okay, I will help you."

"You will?" He asked with a smile now stretching across his face.

"Yes-" She said with a chuckle and opened up her book. He hugged her tightly and said many "Thank You" and "I owe you's" forgetting to keep his voice down and the next thing they both knew was they were getting kicked out from the library.

Hermione walked out of the library with James carrying one of her books, they both looked at each other and bursted out laughing leaning into each other to avoid falling down.

* * *

It was late at night and Hermione couldn't lay awake in her bad for another minute. Muttering obscenities under her breath and cursing her insomnia she shouldered her trusty beaded bag and made her way downstairs, it was well past three so she didn't even wear a robe to cover her P.J's which consisted of a thin well-worn cotton T-shirt she had flicked from Harry and shorts with strawberries on them.

She made her way to the two-seater right opposite to the fireplace and made herself comfortable by wiggling into the sofa. She dug into her bag and searched for the she had taken from the library. She had found he books in the 'Restricted Section' and had gotten the permission from Dumbledore himself to take those books from there. She fingered the dark black old and worn bind of _**Secrets of the Darkest Art**_ and sighed, She was a little hesitant diving into the book but stealing herself she opened the book and made herself read it knowing in the back of her mind that the last anyone had read this book was Voldemort himself.

_The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. But using Dark Arts or Dark Magic can damage an individual's soul beyond repair._

This was the first sentence of the book. Hermione read on and she soon got lost in the book which was much darker, dangerous and more knowledgeable than the other books she had read.

_The Dark Arts, also known as Dark magic, refers to any type of magic that is mainly used to cause harm..._

_The Dark Arts encompass many spells and actions ranging from using the Unforgivable Curses to brewing harmful or poisonous potions to breeding Dark creatures such as Basilisks, and its practice is generally illegal..._

_Fighting the Dark Arts is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. There is no definite way to defeat them..._

She went through the book and then started on the next one _Secrets of the Darkest Art. _Around six she felt her eyes getting heavy, shoving the books in her bag she fell asleep on the couch telling herself that she would get up in an hour and go back to her bed before anyone sees her there.

The first thing she heard as she gained consciousness after falling asleep on the couch was whispering all around her. Unknowingly her hand went straight to her wand and opened her eyes. Sirius and James were standing in front of the couch and eyeing her with a grin on their faces.

"What?" she grumbled as she fluttered her sleep ladened eyes and then rubbing them. She stood up and loosed her muscles reminding herself that sleeping on the couch didn't help her much with the stiffness. She then looked at them again now considerably relaxed than before and them looking at her with a slacking jaw and starry eyes. She sat hack down on the couch.

"What?" she asked again irritated now as her hand automatically rested on her hips.

"It's nothing, you just look different." James said giving her a once over and then looking at her in her eyes.

Hermione frowned and looked down herself wondering what was wrong and then scowled at them. She had forgotten she was wearing a thin, well-worn Harry's shirt and shorts which had ridden up her things barely peeking out as it was covered by the long shirt. Glowering at the both of them she spat out "Perverts!" covering herself with the quilt she looked away. James and Sirius sat next to her on the sofa.

After a second of silence Sirius said with a chuckle and wiggled his eyebrows "Hey, when it's their why not enjoy it." Hermione elbowed him and she smirked to herself when she heard the breath come out of him with a 'Whoosh'.

"What do you want?" she asked looked at both of them.

"Why do you think that we want something from you?" Sirius said trying to keep on the innocent look on his face.

"Well it is kind of suspicious that you both are here, irritating me before I even have time to brush my teeth so it better be something important or so Merlin help me!" she finished in a huff looking at both of them to spit it out.

"Feisty." She heard Sirius murmured. She turned towards him more than happy to give him a piece of her mind but James interrupted her by smacking the back of his head. Hard.

She heard Sirius mutter a curse and James said "Stop irritating her."

He tugged at Hermione's hand forcing her from stop glaring at Sirius to concentrate on James. When he saw her looking him he said "Well you said yesterday that you would help me with Lily so tell me now, what I should do?"

She sneaked a look at her watch and blinked seeing that it was only six in the morning. "You couldn't tell me that later." She asked them aghast. She saw James's face fall sighing she blinked her sleep away and said "Okay, listen carefully. Keep sending her flowers but you know how you are always hung up on her every word and hovering over her?" she asked him waiting for him to acknowledge her.

He nodded and then she continued "Well then stop it. Act indifferent. Act as she is someone else; act the way you act around me. Do not ask her out. I will tell you when the right time is. Don't sit next to her in the great Hall. Minimize your contact with her. Talk to her only necessary."

"Are you sure that will work. It looks like he is avoiding her. If her thinks the same way then how will she go out with him?" Sirius asked her eyebrows furrowed.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder Sirius." She said to him simply and then picked her bag and made her way to her dormitory to get ready for the way.

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	10. We are just friends

**Hey guys, sorry for the wait my comp crashed and I had to re-write the whole chapter again and with that my dad had come to visit me. Any way enough of that. I just hope you like this chapter and thanks so much for the reviews, I loved them.**

**Happy Reading.**

* * *

Hermione sipped her pumpkin juice with her right hand and held James's shirt sleeve with her left as she held him back when he saw someone flirting with Lily – again. It had two weeks since the day he had asked her advice on her relationship with Lily and had stopped asking Lily out whenever he has set him sight on her. He had completely avoided Lily, barely spoken to her instead he was either with Sirius and Remus brain storming a prank or with Hermione, just talking to her about nothing and completing his homework with her.

The absence of James asking out Lily was taken as that he was no longer interested in Lily so the other seventh year guys including from other houses that had this as a green signal and had been asking her out and flirting with her.

"Are you sure this is working?" Remus asked as he saw one more guy talking and flirting with Lily, with Lily tagging him along as she laughed with him and played with her hair – Rule number 24 in the book of flirting.

"Thanks so much for the support Remus, I can barely hold back my tears." Hermione said dryly finishing her juice with a gulp.

"Come on, you can see for yourself its working – "Sirius paused at Lily's laughter and then he flicked his fingers at her and said "– see."

Sighing at the three of them she clamped down her irritation and said "Yes I am pretty sure and the next time anyone asks me again I am going to hex you till next century."

"But, but…" James sputtered his eyes stuck to Lily and her hand which was resting on the guy's hand. If he could fire spells from his eyes, the guy's hand would be severed from his body by now.

Hermione looked at him and he looked miserable. She closed her eyes for a second breathing in and then said "I know its working because she was asking me about you, James. Maybe for the first time she voluntarily asked me about you and she may have sounded a little – Jealous." Hermione and Sirius ended together.

James perked up and looked at her. "What exactly happened?"

"And they say girls gossip." Hermione said wryly and then started when she saw the stern look on his face.

* * *

"So Hermione, are you interested in anyone we might know?" Alice asked with a sly smile spreading across her face.

They had been talking about boys for the hour and a half or so and Hermione had easily lost herself in her thoughts and in her plans involving Voldemort with a 'hmmm' here and a grunt their she managed to do both without being obvious. She jerked out of her trance when she heard name being called.

"What?" she asked the trio as she rubbed her eyes.

"What's up with you and James?" Dorcas asked, not the one to run around in circles.

Hermione's eyes brows furrowed and said "Nothing, Why?"

"Well since you have come to Hogwarts everyone has noticed that you and James have immediately hit it off and now all of a sudden, he has stopped asking Lily out. So what's up? Are you both going out?" Dorcas said in a breath. While Dorcas was saying that Hermione attention was fixed on Lily. Her expressions ranged from jealousy to sad to anger and then back to jealousy.

Interesting.

Looking at three of them she said "Nothing is going on between him and me. We are just friends."

"Then why did he stop pursuing Lily all of a sudden?" Alice asked puzzled.

"Maybe he found someone else to irritate." Lily said at last staring intently at Hermione.

"Or maybe I don't know he is just fed up of asking you out and you tell him no every single time, maybe he has finally understood that you are never going to return his feelings, or no matter how much he tries to change he just can't measure up or maybe he is just not good enough for you, or maybe… maybe he did find someone else to 'irritate'." Hermione snapped at Lily not able to hold it back, snapping everyone to silence.

She waited for a couple of seconds for the silence to continue and then got ready for bed, murmured a goodnight at the thee of them who were busy getting ready too and then closed the curtains with a flick of her wand and laid down.

The plan was working, she though smirking.

* * *

"I can't believe it." Remus said his eyes sparkling, Sirius nodded at him, agreeing.

"Thanks Hermione." James said laughing aloud with relief attracting attention towards them and kissed her on her cheek and mussed her hair. Rolling her eyes at his antics she slapped his shoulder playfully and laughing at the goofy smile he had put on with Remus and Sirius joining her.

* * *

"I need to talk to you." Lily said sitting down next to her, back staring like an arrow, face drawn tight and eyes shuttered.

"What?" Hermione replied shortly without talking her eyes of the book in front of her.

"I want to know what is going on between you and James."

"Why?"

There was a pause during which Hermione purposefully turned a paged and then she spoke "Please I just… I need to know." her voice in a near whisper.

She placed a bookmark in the book and then closed it; turning towards Lily a bit she said "I wasn't lying yesterday, Lily. We are friends and nothing is going on. And if you do have more question you should talk to him not, me. Don't drag me into it."

Lily nodded, relief and slumped down in relief and their gathered herself walking out of the library.

* * *

Hermione was sitting on the three-seater sofa between, Sirius and Remus just opposite of the fireplace in the common room. James had a smile on his face, his eyes distant and Hermione was sure it was due to Lily. Sirius was polishing his broom and Remus sighed to her right, he looked worn out and pale with dark circles below his eyes and realised that it was two days for full moon. She leaned slightly towards to him, just enough to their shoulders to just touch giving him silent strength and promised to brew him the Wolfsbane Potion for the next time.

James suddenly stood and stretched. "I should get to bed." He said looking at the here of them Hermione raised one brow and said "This early, it's only half past eight?"

"Yeah, I haven't been sleeping well for a past few days so… good night." He said with a smile and then went to his dormitory.

"Someone is happy." Remus murmured and then fell silent. Sirius hummed in agreement and went back to polishing his broom.

"Hermione…" Lena Brown, a sixth year student with obvious relation to Lavender Brown just as irritation and boy-crazy had brown hair and dark eyes. Looking at her she thought that Lavender and Lena could be almost twin sisters if not for their height difference with Lena two to three inches taller.

"Yes?" she asked never taking her eyes off the fire. She felt Sirius chuckle next to her.

"Draco is here to meet _you_." Her tone suggesting her displeasure. Hermione frowned and heart started to beat faster as she sat up. She continued "I asked him to come in but he said he would wait for him and it was very important."

Brushing past her she heard her say "I don't even know why he wants to talk to you." Ignoring her and Sirius when he asked her "What does he want?" she made her way outside the common room to Draco and stopped right in front of him.

His face paler than usual and thin, the wall was supporting him as he stood. "What happened?" she asked coming straight to the point.

"Did you read the paper I gave you?"

"No, it's in my bag and I didn't have time to read it…"

"Merlin, Granger how could you not read it! Fuck." He cursed out loud.

"I am sorry. Just give me some time. I will just go and read it right now, five minutes." She said muttering the password to the Fat lady and then making her into the common room.

Cursing again, he ran his hand through him hair and then hurriedly followed her before the portrait could close. She was just ready to go up the stairs when he called out her name and pulled at her shoulder, by this time everyone's attention was on them. She stumbled back into him and he readied her.

"It doesn't matter now, come with lets go somewhere else more private." He said giving the room a once over noticing the room was filling in more by the second. This was the first he had entered the Gryffindor's common room, it was all so red and stuffy and hot. He pushed past Remus and Sirius who were standing at the entrance waiting for Hermione and made his way out.

"It's okay, nothing to worry." He heard her say to them and then followed him outside, side by side. They walked for a long time, in silence when at last he stopped at a barren corridor.

"Will you just tell me what's going on?" Hermione asked.

"You have to know that before you came here, before I didn't know about my parents and how everything I was doing was just wrong…" he trailed away.

"What happened before that Draco?" she asked.

He pulled up his sleeves to show the Dark-Mark on his pale skin and she had to stop herself from taking a step back. "He called on me yesterday, Granger."

"Does he know that you are from the future?" She asked holding her breath.

"Yes." He replied in a near whisper.

"What does he know, exactly?" She asked him a rush.

"Everything."

"Everything, does he know about the Horcruxs?" she asked hesitantly.

"Horcruxs… you know about them?" He asked her, his eyes wide.

"Yes, but how do you know?" she asked him biting her bottom lip.

"Before I came here, he told me to tell him in the past."

"Shite." She cursed pressing her hand to her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

"But I didn't tell him about you." He said looking at her worriedly.

"You didn't?" her voice full of surprise.

"Of course." He said sounding a little hurt.

"I am sorry, but that's good, him not knowing about me." She bit her lip and then continued "Do you have any idea how many Horcruxs he has made until now?"

"Three."

"Wow, that's a lot, more that I had imagined. How do you know?"

"He thinks me coming back in time proves my loyalty to him."

"So, you are the new Snape." She said to herself. Draco snorted at that, Hermione looked at him wide eyes and then bursted into laughter.

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	11. First Meeting

A/N: Hey I am so so sorry for the loooong wait. I had my semester end exams and then I went to me grandparents place and spent almost a month their too. Anyway I am not happy with this chapter but I promise the next one is loads better.

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"You know, it's really dangerous for someone to roam around alone at this time of the day… especially a girl." Hermione heard a familiar low voice say as he sat next to her.

"Not if the girl can handle her wand like I can." She replied without looking at him.

He came and sat next to her on the benches. "Why are you here this early?" he asked her blowing hot air on his bare cold hands with his moth and rubbed them together.

"I can ask you the same thing." She said shivering slightly against the sudden drift of wind.

"I… I can't sleep." He mumbled.

"Same here."

There was a pause where the silence settled down on them, she heard him suck in a breath and then say "You remember when you said that you will be there when I wanted to talk?"

"Yeah and I swear I won't tell anyone anything either." She said and then added _unless absolutely necessary_ in her mind.

He was silent for a second and then spoke a little faster than usual but not so fast that she couldn't understand him "I have a choice. There is this… club and my _friends_ are a part of it and they want me to join it too but I am not exactly sure whether I should join or not. And if I don't join my friends… let's just say they won't be happy with me."

"Regulus, the reason that you are thinking twice about it is enough to not join the club." Hermione said picking her words carefully.

He sighed out lot and then turned toward her with a small mocking smile and said "But Hermione the problem is that once you get an invitation form the club you really can't say no to it."

"But there has to something - anything that can be done so that you can avoid it." She protested.

"No." he said so simply that she couldn't even protest.

"Give me some time." She said at last in a near whisper.

"What can you do in 'some' time?" He asked her.

"Let me try at least. You have nothing to lose." She said when he hesitated. He nodded after thinking about it "Five days." He said to her and walked away.

* * *

It had been two days since she had spoken to Regulus and she hadn't had a single successful thought about it. She was looking into space, lost in her thought she felt someone sit beside her and open a book. She spied from the corner of her eyes and saw with slight shock that it was Snape. Her spine went sharp and she was in full attention and with-in reach to her wand in less than three seconds. Her eyes were fixed on the books, moving to and fro when she heard him say "At ease." It shocked her when she felt her lips curve in a smile; she turned her head slightly towards him and said "Well, is this going to be a regular thing or…"

"I suppose it will be as you are sitting in my seat." He said to her with a smirk.

She narrowed he eyes and said slightly playfully "Funny I don't see your name on it."

He pressed his lips together and much like the professor she knew before said "I never realised that I had to etch my name to make it mine."

"I didn't mean that literally, I was joking… never mind." She said shaking her head and then went back to her book. She just couldn't sit still. Never in her farthest imagination she did imagine that she would be sitting with Professor Snape and added to that they were being civil t each other.

"Would you stop doing that?" Snape said with a trace of irritation in his voice. Jerking off her thought she frowned at him "Stop doing what?"

"That." He said clenching his teeth and then put his hand over hers immediately stopping her finger which was tapping the table at equal intervals.

"Okay, okay jeez." She said slipping her hand off from under his and asked him "So what are you reading?"

"Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger." He said trying to mask his irritation.

A smile curved her lips, never in hundred years she would have thought that could irritate Snape so easily without getting detention or loosing house points. "Really, I have already read that one. Did you read about the Herbicide Potion yet?" She asked him wondering how far she could push him before he would explode.

"I have already read this book, just going through again and I would appreciate it if you let me concentrate instead of disturbing me with your useless chatter."

"if I am bothering you that mush then why don't you just sit somewhere else?" She asked in a whisper as she was the librarian come their way.

"Why should I? This is my table after all." He said as he pretended to read the book.

"This is not your… you know what? I am not even going to say it again. This is public property and I can use it anytime I want." She said thumping her hand on the table as she glared at him. Suddenly his lips curved and he looked behind her, frowning she turned as saw the librarian glaring at her.

"I can't believe it. She threw us out." Hermione said as they stepped out of the library.

"What is more unbelievable is that I was thrown out with you." Snape said.

"Seriously, after all it was your fault." She pointed out.

He glared at her in return and shook his head, his long hair covering his face. Hermione frowned at him and asked him before she could stop herself "Why don't you cut your hair?"

He didn't even answer her, just shook his head and then turned making his way to Slytherin common room.

"I was serious." She said to his back. He stopped for just a moment then continued walking. She stood there until he turned, until he was out of her sight and then sighed, slumped down against the wall until she sat on the ground. With her head between her legs she breathe in.

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	12. Remus

_She stood, still as stone, in between the chaos. She saw the action around her in slow motion. "Duck!" Ron shouted at her and she instinctively did. Spinning around she saw the death eater Antonin Dolohov come behind her. Quickly she shot out "Confringo" at him, catching him right at his chest. The moment she saw him double over she started moving, searching for Harry; she had to get him, cover his back while he searched and fought Voldemort. That was the plan._

_She ran between Aurors, death eaters, sixth and seventh year's students. She dodged curses and shot a few of them too, but she couldn't find him. She stopped for a second, her eyes looking everywhere as she caught her breath and finally saw Bellatrix 'Crucio' Neville. Hermione immediately petrified her and made her way towards them. She gave him her hand and pulled him up, wrapping her hand around his waist as tremors ran through him. "Give it some time and breathe through it," she said to him whilst she tied up Bellatrix. Slowly after some minutes he nodded and stepped away from her. "You okay?" she asked._

_"Yeah, thanks for that," he said, nodding at the petrified death eater at their feet._

_"Never mind that, but Neville what are you going to do with her? Do you want to kill her?" she asked him right on the point._

_"You know I always thought I would kill her when I got the chance, but now it seems… weak," he said, looking down at the bound Bellatrix. Hermione nodded, she understood what he meant. "But you know what-" he paused and pointed his wand towards her and said, "Defodio." They both watched in silence as gouges appeared over her face. "That's enough." He smiled at her and ran into the battle head on, quickly vanishing from her view._

_It took some time but she found him; she found him with Luna in his arms. Her heartbeat quickened as she hurried to them, kneeling down she asked what happened._

_"I don't know – I just found her here."_

_"Is she alive?" she asked, looking at him, her voice a hushed whisper._

_"Yeah, she's weak but there." His voice shook with relief._

_She nodded and said, "Let's get her out of harm's way." Harry nodded and picked her up, walking behind Hermione until they reached a clearing behind some bushes and rubbles. "Now, give me your robe," she said to him as she ran her wand over her. She bundled up his robe and placed it under her head. "Scourgify," she muttered followed by a mumbled long versus whilst she kept running her wand all over Luna. She sagged and bowed her head and said "I've put her into deep sleep so her system can recover and start healing on its own. I can't do anything more here."_

_"Someone should take her to the infirmary," Harry said as he saw her smoothing her hair out._

_"Someone meaning you, because there is no way I am going to leave you again, I'm not going unless you come with me," she said in a tone which held no argument._

_"Damn it Hermione! We can't just leave her here," he said roughly._

_"She will be fine, this place is out of the way and I'll put up some wards around her." Harry took a deep breath and reluctantly nodded. He pressed a kiss on her forehead and Hermione whispered, "We will come back." With that they left._

Hermione woke with a jolt and then sagged over her pillows. She could still see Luna when she closed her eyes. She had scourgified her, but her clothes were torn, faded and dirty; her hair had come loose of her braid and was singed in places. There was a bruise forming on her cheek and a scrape on her forehead. They had returned unsuccessful in ending Voldemort's life, but it was too late. Harry had carried her in his arms, bruised and bloodied. Madame Pomfrey told them that the internal bleeding was too much, she had bled out. She could never forgive herself for leaving her there and she suspected that neither would Harry.

"Tempus," she whispered and saw it was only five in the morning. She snuggled into the pillow and wished she could go back to sleep. She was over exhausted and knew very well that she should take Dreamless potion to help herself, but she stopped herself, her gut feeling was telling her to hold off the potion for a while and she always listened to it.

Finally giving up on sleep, she left her bed and saw all the other bed curtains were closed. She made her way to her trunk and took out her washed and ironed uniform before heading to the bathroom. "Maybe a cold shower will make me feel alive and stop my eyes from burning so much," she thought, stepping into the shower.

* * *

"Hey," James said to her as he slipped next to her in Potions. Remus and Sirius took the seats behind them. Hermione blinked slowly before smiling at them sleepily.

"Rough night?" Remus asked her, sympathetically looking at the dark circles under her eyes.

"Yeah, couldn't sleep. Anyway, good morning to you all," she said smiling at them. She looked at his crooked tie, it reminded her so much of Harry that her hand immediately went to it and straightened it. She suddenly remembered the situation and withdrew, linking her fingers together on her lap. She bit her lip and mumbled an apology.

"It's okay," he said shrugging.

"No, you don't understand – I'm not flirting. Not even for you and Lily. So -" James cut her off.

"It's okay I understand and anyway I never thought you were flirting with me."

She smiled in return, relieved just as Slughorn came into the class. He had asked her to stay behind after class and invited her to join The Slug Club. Though she wanted to refuse she really couldn't without being rude to him, so she smiled and nodded and agreed to attend.

"Hey," Sirius said to her as she stepped out of the class and started making her way to Charms.

"Oh! Hey, what are you doing here?" she asked, as he started walking beside her.

"I was waiting for you; I wanted to tell you something," Sirius said.

"And what's that?" she asked him, a little interested now.

"You don't have to worry about James ever thinking of you in a romantic sense," he said, but realising how it sounded he quickly said "Not that you aren't beautiful, you are and you're smart..." he stopped when Hermione chuckled.

"Thank you Sirius for those kind, kind words."

"What I meant to say is that he is in love with Lily so he won't make a pass at you and also he knows we all know that your best friends were boys and it's obvious that you feel more comfortable with them too." Hermione smiled at that bowed her head in appreciation. "Also my tie is crooked and I don't mind if you feel the need to correct it."

"You goofball!" she said, rolling her eye, but she still straightened his tie and entered the class before they both could get detention.

* * *

The rest of the day passed pretty quickly. Hermione had the last hour off and she decided to spend it in the Room of Requirement exercising, burning off her excess energy. That night she ate her dinner in the Kitchens and made her way to the Common Room, well past curfew. She saw James, Sirius and Peter sitting on the sofas looking lost in their thoughts.

"What's wrong?" she immediately asked as she sat down next to Sirius, dropping her bag on the floor.

"Remus' parents were murdered," Peter said, clearing her throat when the both of them stayed silent.

"Oh," Hermione exclaimed and then asked softly, "Where is he?"

"He's in the dorm room – said he needed some time alone." James said his voice breaking slightly. Hermione shifted and held his hand and squeezing it softly.

"And when was this?" she asked him.

"Two hours ago," he said dropping her hand and pressing his fingers to his forehead.

She nibbled on her lip and stood up. "I'm going to check up on him," she said, nodding to herself. She ran up the stairs, holding her breath as she knocked on the door. When there was no answer she pushed the door open and stepped in. The room was freezing, the windows wide open; shivering she closed them and sat down next to him.

Remus was sitting on his bed, staring blankly ahead. She took his hands into her own and rubbed them warm. They sat together on the bed for a long time and then Remus spoke. "I wanted some time alone."

"No one wants to stay alone at times like this." She spoke softly to him. He kept quite so she spoke again, "They are worried about you, you know."

"They don't understand," he said angrily, dropping his head on his hands.

"No they don't, but they are trying to," she said, keeping her voice soft. "It's not something you can imagine; it has to happen to you to know."

"It doesn't feel real yet," Remus said, running his fingers through his hair.

"No, it takes a while, but when it hits it's good to have your friends with you."

"It's just…I miss them," he said, choking out the words, his shoulders shaking.

"I know." She wrapped her hands around him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"It's like someone has 'Reducto'd' me…blasted a piece out of me. I feel empty and alone."

"You are not alone; you have me and your friends who will do anything for you, okay? Don't ever think that you have no one."

"But what about the feeling, the emptiness?"

"That won't go away, ever," she told him. When he slumped down she continued. "My parents were murdered two years back and I still feel like the way you just described. But each and every day that feeling lessens a little bit, the pain eases a bit. You will be alright and it's not like you don't have anyone else; you have the Marauders," she said, rubbing his hand.

He shuddered and breathed in, nodding with agreement. "Thanks for telling me."

Hermione smiled back and said, "Let's go downstairs." She stood up and offered her hand. For a second she thought he would refuse it, but he reached out and took it and they both made their way downstairs.

The moment they stepped off the stairs, James and Sirius wrapped Remus in a hug. She had to pull them all to the sofa and separate them from Remus before they could overwhelm him. She sat in between Remus and Sirius with James on the carpet in front of the sofa, the fireplace warming his back. "Where's Peter?" she asked James, looking around suspicious.

"He went to the kitchens, said he was hungry." James answered. Hermione nodded and knew where he really was.

"You-Know-Who killed my parents," Remus said in disgust to the silent room, hands fisted in anger.

"Call him by his name, Voldemort," Hermione said, bluntly ignoring the flinches, "He won't appear in front of you if you do call his name, neither will you drop dead."

"That day Malfoy said that Grindelwald murdered your parents," Remus stated.

"Actually that was just after Dumbledore defeated him, so what had happened was that Grindelwald's followers had joined Voldemort, so I guess in a way you can say that Voldemort is responsible too."

"You sound so… okay about it," James said, looking at her.

"No, well, at least I don't feel okay about it. I'm so angry about it and I hate him so much. I'm just storing it all inside to use when I finally fight him."

"And how are you going to do that?" Sirius asked, leaning towards her now interested.

"Well I was just speaking to Dumbledore about it the other day and he said that he was going to form a group called 'The Order of Phoenix.' It's meant to fight dark lords and all sorts of evil, which right now as we all know is Voldemort and his Death eaters. The Order will work with the Ministry to oppose Voldemort and his followers and I told him to count me in."

"I want in too," Remus said with fire in his eyes.

"Us to," Sirius spoke indicating James and him.

"Okay. I'll talk to Dumbledore tomorrow, oh and one more thing; don't talk about The Order to anyone not with the girls, not even to Peter. Promise me?"

There was a small pause and then James said, "We promise." Hermione nodded and said, "We should all try and get some sleep." She dug into her bag and emptied half of the dreamless sleep potion and then gave it to Remus "Take this – you deserve it more than I." He nodded and gulped it down without any argument and made his way to his dormitory with James and Sirius behind him.


	13. The Dark Lord

The potions lab was open on weekends for students to practice or brush up on the art of making potions. The lab was mostly unattended by professors and students alike as Sirius had told her before – _No one in their right mind would_. That was why Hermione was surprised when she saw Snape there, head bent over his potion as he muttered out ingredients, but she somehow knew he would be there. Looking at him she made up her mind and steeled herself for what was coming next.

"There you are," Hermione said, smiling sweetly at him

"What do you want?" he asked her eyebrows drawn together with suspicion.

"Why Severus – I can call you Severus, can't I? – How nice to meet you too. I'm fine and also interested in finding out whatever you know about Voldemort; have you joined him yet and how many Death Eaters are there in Slytherin right now?" she said as she sat down next to him, never taking her eyes off of him.

He stood up from the bench and moved in front of her, wand in hand with a potion bubbling away in between them. His right hand subconsciously went to his covered left hand for just a second where the Dark Mark was burned into his skin. Hermione's eyes softened in understanding.

"Silencio," she said silencing the room before locking the door. She put some wards up outside the lab which would give her a minute's heads up before anyone would come to the door. As she finished, Severus added his own spells and wards up outside the room. Once he was satisfied he spoke, "How do you know that I serve the Dark lord?" His face was made of stone, void of any emotion and his eyes cold as ice.

"You just proved it to me," she said looking at his hand which had covered the Dark Mark a moment before.

"True, but you suspected before: how?" he asked, his hand dropping to his side.

"I know a lot of things, but Severus why did you join him? You didn't want to – I know that. Were you forced?" she asked him deflecting his question, keeping her voice soft.

"How do you know that I didn't want the mark? After all not everyone has the opportunity to serve him. It is a matter of pride that I was hand-picked –"Severus said when Hermione cut him off.

"Cut the bullshit Severus." Hermione smiled at him and shook her head, "It feels like you are convincing yourself. You know I'm muggle born and still you don't treat me like dirt, like I'm beneath you. You don't curse at me neither do you try to hex me whenever you get the opportunity and also…" She trailed away looking at his stone-set face she continued hesitantly, "I heard you're Lily's best friend."

His face crumpled as he heard what she said, his face showed flashes of surprise, anger, guilt and finally resentment. "You know about us? How? Did she tell you?" Severus rushed his words as he moved closer to her.

She knew she had to be careful here. She couldn't lie to him about this and get his hopes up; neither could she say something which would make him do something rash. "Just in passing. She said you were her friend since before Hogwarts. So what happened? You guys had a fight, words were exchanged so you went running and took the Dark Mark? Why? To spite her, to-"

"NO!" Severus said aloud and she became silent. He came and sat next to her and she got ready to hear his side of the story.

"No, Lily is my friend, best friend actually. We met before Hogwarts, we were neighbours and I saw her perform magic so I introduced myself and we became friends. I had to take the mark. The others in my house were ordered that if I didn't take the mark, they were to hurt... or rather torture Lily. It wasn't a secret that we were both friends and her friends and my housemates gave us grief over it, but we ignored it. So I had to take the mark willingly, I called her a mudblood last year in front of everyone and since then we stopped talking to each other. The day after taking the mark I went to her, stood in front of Gryffindor's common room's door until she came out. She did come out and told me that she never wanted to speak to me again. I really can't blame her for saying that, after all I wanted it to happen, to cause her hurt so she could be safe... by being away from me. But still she is my best friend and how could I just walk away from her and not talk to her and act like she doesn't exist? I tried talking to her, but she is always with her friends and Potter and his friends don't need a reason to prank me." He stopped and sighed in regret.

She felt her throat tighten as she heard him speak. She never knew, now she understood the resentment towards Harry by him in the future, but this time it would be different, this time he wouldn't be so bitter and she vowed on mending his and Lily's friendship too. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out. She felt sad for him, not pity but sadness. She couldn't think of a thing to say so she spoke of her and Malfoy.

"I don't know if you know this or not but me and Draco, we were from the same school."

"Everyone knows," he said drily, but he relaxed a bit next to her. "Especially Slytherins. They are very curious."

"Do they include you too?" she asked him with a smile and then chuckled when he smiled back. "Well back then we weren't so friendly or rather civil to each other. Back then our usual words were him calling me mud-blood and I calling him ferret. It's a long story," she said when he raised an eyebrow silently asking about the ferret thing. She continued without breaking the stride and said, "He used to insult me and my parents and I used to retaliate, I broke his nose once when I punched him in the face and I also used to insult his father – who was a big nosed 'pure-blood is the best' believer. He is also a death eater and was the one who made Draco take the mark. So anyway my point is after all that we are friends now, no hard feeling between us. You called Lily mud blood, okay what you did was very bad but it's not unforgivable. Not talking to you since then and breaking up your friendship, it's not right," she said as she felt anger bubbling towards Lily in her stomach.

"But…" He started to defend her, but she cut him off.

"But nothing, I don't care whatever you did or say short of cursing or torturing her, she shouldn't have reacted the way she did," she said in a hard voice which dared him to contradict her. He didn't say anything else but relaxed next to her as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulder which she supposed it had been. She didn't say anything else giving him time to process what had happened and to sort it all out in his head.

"I loved her," he admitted after a moment of silence, her eyes widened in shock as she heard him. He continued without looking at her, "She didn't know, how could she… when I never told her about it?" This time he looked at her and almost smiled when he looked at her expression, her eyes widened in shock. He smiled at her and shook his head "It's okay, you don't have to say anything."

_Snape likes Harry's mum… no … Snape _loves _Harry's mum…_

That was what was going through her mind as she heard him speak. She tried to think, to say something supportive or say anything, but she couldn't, she was stunned to say the least. It took her some time to re-group and said the only thing she thought was suitable. "I am sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about, it happened and I got over it," he said trying to shrug it off as if it was not a big deal, but she saw right through it.

"You will find someone someday, much better than Lily," she said squeezing his hand lightly. She promised herself that she would do everything to make that true. She saw him looking at her with an odd look in his eyes, her eyes widened in understanding and blurted out, "Not me." And then clamped her hands over her mouth in shock.

They both looked at each other in shocked silence for a couple of seconds and then burst into laughter. "Oh! Merlin. Last time I laughed was when… well never," Severus said smiling at her.

She smiled back thinking it was so bizarre seeing him like this and then turned sober as she spoke, "I want you to join the Order of Phoenix. Dumbledore is going to start this group which is going against Voldemort-" and paused when he flinched at his name.

"What do I have to do?" he asked her softly.

"Just fight against him, spy for us," she asked hesitantly as she bit her lip.

"You want me to spy on the Dark Lord?" he asked her in obvious disbelief.

"I know it's very, very dangerous and very scary but we will – I will help you every step on the way," she said as he held his hand tight on the table. "Legilimens, Occlumency, learn new hexes, curses, spells – everything."

"I…I" he spluttered, but she cut him off, "I know this is a huge decision so take your time and think about it okay." He just looked at her in wonder with what had happened in the last half hour. She got up and picked up her unopened bag then muttered a spell at him. "What was that?" He shot up furious with the sudden attack.

"Just a precaution Dumbledore wanted to take in case you refuse," she said her displeasure evident on her face.

He relaxed a bit and asked "What does it do?"

"Nothing much, it just won't let you in any way speak of this to the others." He nodded in agreement and sat down.

"Severus, Lily will be there too and it could be your chance to make it all right with her." She told him as she cancelled the charms and wards around the room and waited for him to do the same and then left the room leaving him with his thoughts.

"Are you certain the Gryffindor sword will destroy the Horcrux, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked her as they both of them made their way through the dark and empty corridors of Hogwarts to the Room of Requirement.

"I am certain, Professor," she told him, her heart beating fast and steady for what was going to happen that night.

What had happened to Remus's parents made her take the step to destroy the first Horcrux. She was trying to avoid it, she realised that night after Remus went to sleep. Coward, she thought of herself and then quickly owled Draco that very night so they could speak the first thing next morning. That was four days ago, she met him before breakfast and bluntly asked him to get the diary from Malfoy Manor. It took him two days but he got it. When she asked him how he did it, he smirked and walked away. She had told him to never touch it so the diary was wrapped in some parchment and was levitated, never touched by him and neither did she touch it. She had immediately taken it to Dumbledore and both of them decided that they would destroy it once the Marauders were out of Hogwarts for Remus's parents' funeral.

They both had argued as to who would actually destroy the Horcrux. After some words were exchanged and a small tiff had taken place she agreed to him doing it. Dumbledore walked a few steps in front of her and stopped at the blank wall opposite to the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls ballet, and then walked into a barren never ending room. They were silent as Dumbledore placed the diary on a low table.

"Are you ready?" she asked him as she stepped several steps behind him and the Horcrux.

"Yes, Miss Granger. Do not worry about me," he said and then stepped in front of the Horcrux. He held the sword in one hand and his wand in the other. He flicked his wand and the diary opened up. He picked up the sword to strike when a familiar figure stopped him in his tracks.

"Good Evening, Professor," Tom Riddle said looking pale and ghostly.

"Tom," he replied calmly.

"No need to talk to him, professor. Just stab the diary," Hermione hissed from behind him. Tom Riddle looked at her and asked with a sly smile "And who is this, still taking your students to run your errands?"

Dumbledore kept silent and just looked at him. Hermione couldn't believe it; they were having a staring stand-off. Shaking her head she hugged herself and called out for him, his name twice and then thrice urging him to do it. It looked like Dumbledore broke away from a stupor as he shook his head. His eyes hardened and then stabbed the dairy as Tom tried stopping him. The reaction was instant, a scream echoed in the room and black ink oozed out from the stab wound and a blast of air was expelled from around the diary with enough force to push the both of them back a few feet.

Hermione quickly found her footing and went to him. She helped him up and then touched his shoulder and asked him "Are you okay, Sir?" She ran her eyes over him, looking to see if he was physically injured.

"I am fine Miss Granger. Just had my breath knocked out of me, that's all," he said patting her hand. He bent down to pick up the now ruined diary, the ink had already begun to dry and she shuddered.

"At least we have one less Horcrux to deal with," she said, looking at the bright side and then added with a tone that held no argument, "The next time I'm doing it." Dumbledore looked at her for a second and then nodded without the twinkle in his eyes.

_Hermione's Journal:_

_First Horcrux-Riddle's diary-destroyed-14/11/1977_


	14. Yes!

**Authors Note: There is absolutely no reason why I haven't posted for so so long except that I was facing one of the worse writers block ever. Anyway I hope you like this small but at-last finished chapter.**

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**One Week, three days later.**

The whole gang was walking to the Gryffindor Common Room; Hermione silently walking the in front next to Remus when she saw him. Severus was standing on the wall opposite to the Fat Lady having a conversation with her, his hands deep in his pockets with an ease she envied.

He pushed himself off the wall, bowed at the Fat Lady as she smiled down at him in delight and walked towards her when he saw her. She smiled at him as felt everyone around her stiffen caution. She could almost see what would happen next, having being in this type of situation with Harry and Ron versus Draco, she immediately stepped forward before 'words' could exchange.

"Easy guys, he wants to talk to me." She said walking towards him. She saw his eyes flicker to Lily so quickly that she would have missed it if she saw staring at his eyes and then back to her.

"Yes?" She asked him her smile almost uncontrollable as she nodded to him.

"Yes." He said his face blank as ever.

She couldn't stop herself. She threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around him as she jumped in excitement. He stiffened at her touch then relaxing just a bit he patted at twice to her head like a pet and then stepped away.

"Here." She searched her bag which she took it everywhere and pulled out a coin which she had given to James, Remus and Sirius; the same one she had used in the DA and pressed it into his palm shielding this movement by her body. He studied the coin with interest that was only shown by a flick of his eyebrow and then in vanished into his pocket.

"You will know how to use it when the time comes." She told not wanting to get into it with the others hovering behind her as they tried their hardest to catch every word spoken between the two of them. He nodded in understanding and looked at her and then back to the group for a second longer and then left down the dark hallway making his way to the Slytherin common room.

She saw him walk away and then turned to face them. "Let's go inside the Common Room, it's almost curfew; come on." She said and followed Dorcas in, trying to pass off the 'talk' that was coming her way but wasn't quite successful. She rushed forward aiming the single worn out chair next to the sofa but James cut her off, holding her arm in a firm grip as he re-directed her to the sofa where Sirius and Remus were already making themselves comfortable.

Pushing away the feeling to sulk and the irritation she felt with the situation; she sat between them as the others settled. Lily was the one to talk first as she asked her "What in the world was that?"

"Nothing." She said as she tried to ignore the others. Instead she stared deep into the fireplace, at the burning logs.

"That wasn't nothing." Dorcas said now her eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"That was none of your business." She said sharply, which was followed by a brief silence. She felt guilt niggle at her at her response but she didn't do anything about and ordered herself to keep quite.

"So you are friends with him." Alice said breaking the awkward silence.

A smile crossed her lips as she thought about Severus as her friend and said with a defiant glance to all of them "Yes I am."

* * *

"Sirius I just can't tell him to stop hanging out with me." Hermione said in harsh whisper behind one of the book shelves of the library; Remus sitting on one of the benches waiting for her.

She had excused herself and had been searching for a book pertaining to _The Transfiguration of a Non-living to a Living Being_ when someone had clamped one hand over her mouth from yelling and the other one around her waist and snatched her few feet away from Remus.

"It's me." The 'someone' whispered in her ear as she tried to struggle out of his hold with her hand creeping near to her wand.

Sirius let her go and Hermione whirled to face him. "What the hell are you doing!" she hissed.

"Keeping you from screaming or talking aloud so Remus doesn't know about it, he has unusually sharp hearing." Sirius groaned and rubbed his shins where she had kicked him during the struggle. "Was that really necessary?"

"Yes I always welcome my kidnappers with a hello and a smile. You're lucky I didn't have my wand out," she snarled. "Don't DO that!"

"Well, excuse me, but I wanted to talk to you."

"And you couldn't get my attention the normal way?" She asked him glaring at him.

"I didn't want Remus to know about this conversation."

"So search me out when I am not with him, what do you want, Sirius? And why aren't you at Quidditch practice?" She asked him as she sighed.

"I slipped out in the middle of it." He said which brought her irritation to a stop. She knew how much Quidditch meant to him and for him to miss it, it had to be important.

She relented and asked him, "Okay, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"You always seem to be the one with the answers, tell me what can I do or anybody can do so Remus can start speaking to us like he used to again. After his parent's death, he hasn't been the same."

"You can't expect him to the same as before, Sirius." She told him softly looking at him.

"I don't expect him to be either..." he said quickly then continued "just more open… he rarely speaks to any of us anymore, he just coops in here. It almost feels as though he is avoiding us."

"Sirius, everyone has a different coping time. He will come around once he is ready, you push him about it and he may withdraw more into himself…" She trailed away when his body neared hers trapping her between him and the bookcase and his hands caging her in.

"What are you doing?" She asked him in a whisper looking at him suspiciously when he angled his head to her neck.

"Smelling you, you smell of vanilla and old books." He muttered, his eyes closed taking a deep breath, grazing his nose lightly on the curve on her arched neck as her hair tickled his nose lightly and then backed away as thought coming into his senses; he opened his eyes and looked her breath coming in puffs, pink cheeks, slightly glazed eyes but with a frown between her eyebrows. He stepped back and felt his neck burn in embarrassment as he looked at anywhere but her.

He cleared his throat and said "Anyway, Thanks for the advice." He said quickly smiling at her and then jogged out of the library. Hermione stood still as she fingered her neck where his nose had brushed her skin, shivering slightly she shook her head. She stood there until her breath came under control and then made her way towards Remus.

"What took you so long?" He asked her when she sat opposite to him.

"I ran into Severus and we were discussing about the potion we made yesterday." She said quickly making it up.

He shook his head and said "I will never understand your friendship with him."

She shrugged but kept quiet about it not wanting to get into 'it'. She kept quite trying to ignore the silent question in his eyes when she sighed and looked up at him. "Look there are many things I don't know about you and the same goes with me, so why don't we just drop it? Please." She said when he kept quiet.

After a long look of consideration he nodded and turned back to his books.

They kept at their books in silence for a time when Hermione spoke again, this time hesitantly. "They are worried about you." She said keeping her eyes on the book as she heard the quill scratching on the parchment pause.

She waited the silence out until he finally sighed and said "So that's what Sirius wanted to talk to you about."

She looked at him with surprise but he just shrugged in response. Shaking her head she chuckled and laid her hand on his forearm "I know you feel that you don't deserve the happiness and friendship because they are dead, but you are wrong. Just think about it and tell me: would your parents really want you to cut off everyone you know, especially James and Sirius who are like your brothers?"

He simply nodded and went back to this Charms assignment. She looked at him and saw the fatigue on his face, paler than usual which bought out the scars cutting across his face, light circles under his eyes. And that's when she realized the next full moon was in nine days.

_He needs them more than he realizes._ She thought to herself and she went looking for the potions book from which she could brew the Wolfsbane potion for him.

* * *

For the past few days Hermione had a nagging feeling that she was forgetting something, something that is very important and that it had the power to change some parts - important parts of the future and it all came back to her when she saw Regulus talking with Lestrange. She was walking towards breakfast with the others in tow when she saw him and gasped aloud in shock.

"Fuck!" she said swore aloud and groaned in frustration. Stupid, stupid, stupid… how could she have forgotten about it, about him!

"Are you alright?" Sirius asked pulling her closer to him.

She looked at him and the guilt doubled; she bit her lip and shook her head in disgust towards herself. "Are you hurt?" He asked again pulling her out of the Great Hall as the others sat down for breakfast.

"No, I just remembered something immensely important I had forgotten about."

"Oh! Something I can help you with?" He asked as he tucked his hands deep into his pockets.

"No, it's something I have to do on my own." She said, then quickly added when she saw his dejected expression "Thanks for asking though; it was nice of you to ask." And giving him a smile she made her way back to the Great Hall already formulating a plan on how she can get Regulus alone.

It had taken Hermione two days to finally corner him. The first two times she had tried, he was always seen with the other Slytherins/Death Eaters in the making. And after that it seemed that whenever he would see her or she would be in-calling distance of him he would just disappear and run away. After a few tries Hermione understood what was happening and pursued another technique. The next day during Quidditch practice she waited under the benches keeping an eye out for him and the moment when everyone dispersed, she waited until everyone was out of sight and then petrified him and quickly used the Disillusionment Charm to make him invisible.

She ran towards him from under the benches and then pulled him again under their, with him floating behind her. She let him drop with a satisfying 'Thud' on the ground and removed the Disillusionment Charm but kept him petrified. Trying to keep her guilt and frustration in check, she took a few breathes and walked for a few minutes. Once she had in under control she turned towards and him and stood in front of him, his eyes on her.

"I am sorry." She said with a hiss of air, looking deep into his eyes. She bent down and pulled him in sitting position so they were eye to eye.

"I am so, so sorry." She repeated again and again never looking away from him and then freed him from the spell.

He didn't move but just stayed their keeling in front of her. He looked at her and then sighed; squeezing her hand once he let in drop and said "It's okay. It would have happened eventually, it was just a matter of days."

"But still after I spoke to you, stuff started coming up, one thing after another and soon I lost track of time and when I finally had everything else under control I saw you talking to Lestrange… and I was too late. Regulus, I am so sorry." She said her hands tugging at her hair.

"I understand." He said giving her a smile as he shifted to sit cross legged. She looked at him in wonder and smiled back now with relief.

"Thanks, anyway I have a plan B." She said now all business.

"There is a plan B?"

"There is always a plan B. But first before I get into it, you have to know that it will involve your brother in it too and second, before I tell you, you have to promise me that you are not going to repeat this to anyone else until I tell you otherwise."

He took a few seconds to think about it and then he nodded in agreement. She smiled at him and told him all about the Order and then she told him about Severus and his part in all of this and also how Sirius, James and Remus have taken an oath to join. "Now I am telling you what I told Severus when I explained it to him about this 'I know this is a huge decision so take your time and think about it'." She told him and then got up to get out of their when Regulus reached out to her.

"I don't need to think about it, I already know the answer." He said calmly and then nodded as his agreement. She smiled at him in pleasure and moved to hug him then muttered the same spell Dumbledore had given her so he wouldn't be able to speak of this to anyone else. And then gave him the coin.

_Hermione's Journal:_

_Recruitment for The Order:_

_Me_

_Severus – 24/11/1977_

_Sirius_

_Remus_

_James_

_Regulus - 29/11/1977_

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**R&R**

**R&R**


	15. Rebellion

**A/N: I know it took me some time to put this story up but for the last past month I had the worst back ache ever and my mom banned me to sit on comp. Anyway it's finally finished, I hope you like it!**

**P.S: This chapter has not been beta'd, so pardon all the grammatical mistakes you find.**

* * *

It took a few days for Remus to start hanging out with the others, although most of the time he would spend his time with Hermione; and when he didn't, he craved the peace, silence and felt non-judgmental in her presence. For the most of the time both of them would hang out in the library, sometimes finishing their assignment, or reading up for their classes and when they would get bored or needed a break Hermione would share muggle fiction books to him which never ceased to fascinate him.

But it was the day before the full moon that James, Peter, Sirius and Remus 're-connected' with each other. Remus and Hermione as usual were in the library, working quietly in their own personal bubble; Remus working on his assignment and Hermione reading through Dark Arts Through The Ages Volume III which she had taken from Dumbledore's personal library and had disguised as Arithmancy text book when the three of them came in looking determined and stopped right in front of their table.

She looked at them and knew what was going to happen; she pushed herself off the table and smiled at the four of them. "I need to search a specific book which may take me at least ten minutes to find." She said airily, an act scarily like Luna's and then left them all looking at her in surprise.

It was fifteen minutes later Hermione slid into the empty seat next to Remus who was staring into his three-fourth finished assignment, his face blank and his mind elsewhere. She cleared her throat to indicate her presence and bent down to pick up her bag as she saw him jolt to the present.

"Here." She said taking out the potion she had been working on for the past few weeks. He took the bottle from her hand and looked at her in surprise.

"What?" she said innocently as she opened up her book marked Arithmancy slash Dark Arts Through The Ages Volume III.

"How did you know?" He asked in a near whisper after he popped opened the cork on the bottle and sniffed it.

She gave him a look and said instead "Ask me how long I didn't know."

After a few minutes a stunned Remus asked her in a hushed whisper "When?"

"A week or two after I met you." She lied easily to him "The thing is, in my old school I had a friend who was a were-…" she trailed away when Remus made a noise which was hallway between a choke and a sob and then continued on "…that so I know what signs to look for, and it's okay Remus." She said as she held his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"So you are not scared of me?" He asked a little hesitant.

"No." She shift and hugged him tight. He felt him stiffen up in her arms; she hugged him harder and then felt his arms around her. "It's not your fault you turn into a werewolf every month." She said encouragingly and heard him chuckle at that.

* * *

_1/12/1976_

_Dumbledore's Office¬_

Hermione entered the office to find an empty room, hesitating for just for a second she entered the familiar room. The solid polished oak door automatically closed behind her with a thump and when she tried to push it open. It didn't bulge an inch, knowing the door could be opened by only permission Dumbledore; she made her way directly to the lone window facing the gates and breathed in a gulp of fresh air. It had been three months to the date since she had 'travelled' here and she was missing home terribly. From the moment she had opened her eyes that morning a sense of melancholy clung to her; even her friends – if she could call them that that picked up on it and were smart enough to keep quiet about it.

She could hear the portraits whisper about her but she ignored them. She turned away from the window and paced the room, stopping now and then to look and sometimes touch one of the silvery devices placed on many spindly tables. The perch were Fawkes rests was empty and she wondered whether he was with Dumbledore. She sat down on one the two chairs except the head masters and waited out for him. Twenty minutes later Hermione's patience was running thin.

Getting up from the chair she strode to the other side of the office to Dumbledore's private library which consisted of his incredible collection of books as well as previous headmasters collection too along with the books which had been removed or confiscated from the library for being not suitable for children, being dangerous or for varied different reasons. She eyed them with interest, reading the names of the books aloud when she stopped at _All about Animagi_. She immediately picked it up and made her way to the chair.

It was an hour later, Hermione herd the door open and Dumbledore came in a subtle hurry she had seen before during her time. Quickly marking the page she was reading, she set the book down and stood up and greeted him. He nodded at her and sat down in the chair opposite to her with a sigh. She mirrored him and then asked "What has happened?"

"There was an attack." He said to her without any hesitation.

"Where?"

"Two giants attacked Gringotts, or rather tried too. The response time by the Aurors was almost immediate, the damage done to the bank was little as were the people injured."

"So this is the first official attack by him." She mumbled to herself.

"Yes, I think it was primarily executed to cause fear and terror and also to make a statement about him and unfortunately it is working." He said almost to himself.

"We need to be reciprocating Professor. When this comes out in tomorrow morning's Daily Prophet there will be panic everywhere." She told him.

"You are right." He said nodding.

"I think it's time to have the first official meeting of the Order." Hermione said her eye brows furrowed in thought.

"Yes, you contact the students and I will call on the others. Tell them nothing, just about the time and where the meeting will take place."

"We can use the Room of Requirement, after the curfew late at night, on a Saturday so classes won't be a problem."

Dumbledore nodded in agreement then said "24 December at 11.00 p.m."

"Okay." She nodded once took the bookmarked book from the table between them and said "Sir, I am borrowing this." She waited for his nod

Dumbledore asked her "Planning to be an Animagi?"

"No sir I already am one, Professor McGonagall taught the three of us when we were in our fifth year. This is just… light reading." She said with a wry smile and then made her way out of the room stuffing the book into her bag.

* * *

A week after her meeting with Dumbledore, Hermione took a deep breath and made her way towards Sirius. He was sitting in the love seat with Lena Brown; his smirking down at her and her flirting with him as she played with her hair. She stopped for a split second, pushing away the twinge of hurt/jealousy she felt when she saw him brushing his finger on her cheek just like the way he did to her in the library and pushed on. She stopped right in front of them and waited for him to look up at her.

He looked up at her, his smirk sliding off his for a millisecond before it appeared again. "Hey."

"Hi, listen I need to talk to you…alone." She said to him sparing a glance at Lena who had put her hand on his chest as a sign of marked territory.

"You can talk in front of me, I don't mind. He shares everything with me anyway." Lena told Hermione all but purring as she shifted closer to Sirius, rubbing his arm seductively. Hermione gritted her teeth and bit her tongue to keep herself from answering her and waited for Sirius to either get up or to keeping sitting down. When he did nothing she said "It's about your family."

His reaction was immediate; his smirk vanished, his eyes hardened, his face became a mask and he held himself differently. He brushed Lena away from him and stood up. Ignoring her shriek in anger and embarrassment he made his way out of the common room not paying heed to James questioning call, Hermione rushed to follow him in silence and finally came to a stop in an unused empty, dusty classroom.

"Which one?" He asked abruptly after he silenced the room.

"It's your brother." She started when he cut her off with a curse. He walked towards and scanned her with his eyes, searching for any harm that could have been done to her.

"Did Reg do something to you?" He asked hesitantly after he saw that she was physically fine.

"You got it all wrong, Sirius. He has joined the Order." She said calmly.

"You are having me on, aren't you?" He asked her, his voice taunt with self-control. She shook her head in response and waited for him to process it all. She saw his face go blank and then he smiled liked she had never seen on him before.

"That's great." He said, his eyes shining in delight and she could see his relief too when he understood that it was good news. She hesitated but forced herself to continue "He is joining the Order because he has been recruited to become a Death Eater."

His smiled slipped off his face and he whispered "What?"

"I am sorry Sirius." She said stepping closer to him but stopped when he immediately took a step back.

Forcing back the hurt she felt at that action she kept quiet and walked towards the window, giving him some space and time to absorb what just happened.

"How do you know this?" He said clearing his throat.

"He came to me, Sirius and I knew he had been recruited so I told him that he still had options. It took him some time and then he finally came to me and joined the order saying _it's the right thing to do."_

"How did you know? How did you know he joined, when I didn't even know?" He repeated again a twinge of anger with pride in his voice.

Knowing she couldn't answer him truthfully she said "Severus, he was forced to join the ranks; he told me about your brother hoping I could help him."

"So, Severus is in Order too then." He stated.

"Yes, He was the first one among the students." He said nothing just stayed silent.

"I always knew he was a Death Eater that bat." He mumbled out that.

"Don't call him that." She snapped. "You knowing nothing about him so don't talk about him."

He fell silent which made her feel bad but said nothing to take it back. Finally he said quietly "Why can't he back out?"

Sighing, she nibbled on her bottom lip and said "He wasn't given a choice, Sirius. He wasn't offered the mark but ordered too and if he rejects, they will… I don't know what they will do but it won't be forgotten. Rejecting the mark is not a choice, everyone knows that."

Mulling over what Hermione said he asked her "So Reg and Severus will be what? Double Agents, Spy's?"

"Something like that." She said nodding in agreement.

"But that's dangerous; I have heard that You-Know-Who is a powerful wizard, they both don't stand a chance in front of him."

"On their own without any training they won't but Dumbledore himself is going to train them and you know if Voldemort is afraid of someone, it's him."

He nodded at her and asked her "Is he training you as well?"

She hesitated a second a said "Yes."

"Why?" He asked her bluntly.

"What do you mean why? I asked him and he agreed." She said nonchalantly averting her eyes away from him.

"No, it's not that simple; there is something about you… something special." He stated and she didn't reply still looking out of the window, desperately trying to come up with an excuse that could satisfy his curiosity.

"There is nothing special about me." She told him, with her back to him as she felt him come near.

"That's not true." He said quietly, their bodies almost touching. He leaned forwards, his mouth near her ear as he whispered "You are special."

She turned sideways towards him and looked up at him, into his eyes and just stared. "Umm…" she stammered as her mind went blank, her eyes going to his and then to his lips. He leaned forward and she licked her lips yearning to taste his. His hand came up and brushed his fingers on her cheek… just like he did to Lena and she stepped back, putting some space between them. She took a few steps and sat down on a chair; keeping her eyes ahead and her hands in fists together she said "If you want I can ask Dumbledore to train you, Remus and James, if you are interested."

"And yes, you can tell James and Remus about what we just talked about." She spoke again before he could.

He walked and stood beside her, looking down at her suddenly frustrated said almost growling "Yes."

She nodded and made her way out of the classroom; she was almost out when she stopped, without looking back at him and said "You should get back to the Common Room, Lena must be waiting for you there." and walked away before he could answer.

* * *

_24/12/1976_

_10:49 p.m._

The corridor was empty as Hermione with James, Remus and Sirius met up with Severus and Regulus. The reunion was awkward between the two brothers, with a short hand shake and a nod before they all turned towards Hermione to lead the way. There was a silent tension between her and Sirius which the others weren't blind too, but there was no question asked so she didn't explain. She remained silent the whole way knowing this was equivalent to a historic moment… it was a start of rebellion towards Voldemort.

The door to the Room of Requirement appeared as soon as they reached the seventh floor. Pushing open the door she went inside leading a group of boys who were awed and wonderstruck by the room.

"How did you know about this room, even we didn't know about this one." James said astounded looking around curiously. It was a large, comfortable room, with a crackling fire and several chairs, couches, and coffee tables placed in a circle. A small stool stood right in between where someone could stand and Hermione knew that was Dumbledore's spot. No one seemed to have noticed their arrival, and so she took the time to look around walking further into the room and towards a single chair. She saw Hagrid talking to Aberforth Dumbledore. The Headmaster and Minerva McGonagall were speaking to each other... There were many others some sitting and some standing whose names she didn't know.

"It's a secret." She teased him as they settled around her.

She saw Arthur and Molly Weasley sitting together in a love seat talking to her brothers Fabian and Gideon Prewett. Her eyes settled on the Headmaster who gave her a twinkling smile as he separated himself and walked over. She immediately stood up and walked towards him, smiling at him when they both reached each other.

"Miss Granger," he said smiling down at her.

"Sir, shall we begin?" She asked anxious to start.

"Indeed, Miss Granger. Let's make history." He said her with a chuckle at her impatience, his eyes twinkling in delight.

"If you all could sit down" He said aloud and instantly everyone took a seat waiting for him to continue. With a smile to the room and stood on the stand and said "Dark times are ahead of us and almost three months ago, the proof was seen when the trolls were sent to attack the Gringotts. After a friend suggested that it was high time we started to fight against him, accordingly I have put together a group who will help me do just that; The Order of the Phoenix."

He said nothing for a small time, let the silence grow then started "It has been no secret that a Dark Wizard resides amongst us – Voldemort; and he has made no effort to keep himself in the dark either. And a week ago it was confirmed that Voldemort has begun to invade the Ministry too. According to my sources inside The Death Eaters are mostly using the Imperius Curse to gain information and some are ready to convert on their own due to fear or because they want too. Minister Millicent Bagnold is ready to support us in any way she can. She has told me that once the Death Eaters are captured they will be sent to Azkaban."

"I have recruited some Aurors too who couldn't be here but I assure you that all the members will be present here for the next meeting. If there are any questions, you are welcome to ask." He said with a noticeable twinkle in his eyes.

"What about those students?" Dorcas Meadowes said turning their attention to the six of them. They all bristled under their attention.

"They too are a part of the Order." Dumbledore said.

"They are just kids, Albus." Molly Weasley said sharply.

"They are much more than that, Molly. As a matter of fact Mr. Snape and Mr. Black can you please come up here?" As Severus and Sirius started to get up Dumbledore interrupted and said it was the younger Black he wanted.

He waited until they reached him and then announced to the room that they were Death Eaters. The reaction was instant; everyone except the four of them, Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore pointed their wand to the both of them. Dumbledore did nothing except put his hand on each of their shoulder to show his support for them, eventually the voices began dying down when he explained their situation. There were many arguments and opinions which he listened to but after hearing the full story and after the both had pledged their alliance towards the light they believed them.

"I think it's enough for one day …" Dumbledore started "… but before you all go Miss Granger." He called Hermione to him and gave her the stage. She passed fake Galleon created by her to each of the members and then gave the master coin to Dumbledore. Showing the coin to the others she explained "You can all see around the edge of each coin the series of numerals which, on genuine galleons, represented a serial number belonging to the Goblin that cast the coin. I have cast the Protean Charm on all of them which allows the numerals to change into the time and date of the next meeting of the Order whenever the master coin – Dumbledore's coin is changed. The coin also warms up to alert the holder to the change. So keep it on your selves and you will know."

"These are great!" Gideon Prewett said delighted with its magic.

She looked at all of them and blushed when she saw the shocked and impressed looks when they looked at her and quickly made her way to her seat, as she settled down, Sirius bent forwards and whispered to her "See, special."

_Hermione's Journal:_

_Voldemort's first attack on society to make everyone known of him - __1/12/1976_

_24/12/1976 - Beginning of a revolution._

* * *

**R&R**


	16. Holidays

A/N: This chapter has not been beta'd. So please excuse any mistakes you may find. I know it has taken me some time to bring you this story but life has been hectic here. I was in the protest which took place in India against Sexual Violence, so I dedicate this chapter to her and many others like her who have been a victim and a survivor of Sexual Violence.

* * *

She was avoiding him. She knew it, maybe he did too.

Since Sirius had gone to James's house for Christmas holidays Hermione had a lot of time to think about the stupid attraction she felt between the two of them. It started right after the first order meeting; he was too close, flirting with her making her feel things she once did with Ron. It had to stop; she was too busy to even think about her less than adequate romantic life and she had too many important things to think about. It was nothing, she rationalized to herself. It was just that she hadn't seen him for such a long time, it had to some misdiagnosed emotion she was reading as attraction. Nodding to herself in satisfaction, she pushed it into a corner in her head and concentrated on the potions book in front of her. As she took down notes for Draco whom she was going to meet with later to practice occlumency and legilimency on each other.

It was the New Year's Eve and she was in the almost unoccupied library when she closed her book in extensive Transfiguration and slumped down on the bench resting her forehead on the table. She had reached her saturation point, she admitted to herself. She packed up her things and quickly made her way out of the library before she could convince herself to stay back and research for just a little bit longer when she came upon him.

She knew Severus was one of the few who had stayed back in the castle during the holidays; she had seen him a couple of times but never really spoke to him in the last week or so. Figuring it was a good time to talk to him she made her way to his table and sat down uninvited. He was scribbling in what it seemed a book. She waited until he looked up at her to peek at the book which he immediately closed with a snap.

"Hey." She said with a bright smile hiding her curiosity from him.

"Hello." He replied his voice controlled with a frown between his eyebrows as he looked at her.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he leaned forwards slightly to look at the book.

"Nothing important. Just passing time." He said with a small shrug. She didn't reply but stared at the cover which had a cauldron with _Advance Potion Making_ on it. Frowning she thought hard as she had seen that book somewhere else when Severus placed his forearms on the book so it was blocked from her view.

"So… any plans for today except for spending in the library?" she asked him.

"No." He said rolling up the parchment beside the book.

"Well how about we both spend it together." She offered and she knew as soon as she said that he was going to refuse so she stood up and waited for a second more for him to do the same and said "Let's go." And without giving him any time to argue against her she walked a few steps ahead and waited for him and continued out of the library. She stopped at the entrance of the library and said to him "Let's meet here in an hour." She said to him and saw the small scrawling at the bottom of the back cover of the book signed – 'Half-Blood Prince'.

'Of course, this is the book Harry gets his hand on.' She thought to herself and mind-slapped herself to forget such an important thing.

Keeping her thoughts to herself she continued "Lets meet on the seventh floor, okay." She said with a wide smile and made her way to her dorm room.

* * *

She had done the right thing, Hermione thought to herself as she heard Severus explain about the spell _Muffliato_ which he had created. And in return Hermione told him about her spell how she used _Oppugno _and _Avis _together on Ron to which he snickered… politely.

On the way to the seventh floor she had stopped at the kitchen and brought enough food with her for both of them. In the beginning, it was awkward they had nothing to talk to each other then it was Severus who surprised her and spoke to her about his and Lily's friendship which wasn't exactly smooth sailing after that she spoke to him about house elves which Severus had some points about too as he didn't have them as slaves or helpers when he was growing up and then they hit it off.

It was half an hour to midnight, the starting of a new year when Hermione suddenly thought of the muggle tradition. When she told Sev about it his only response except for shock was "Why?"

"Well, the muggles think that it will bring good luck with the staring of New Year and everything that follows." She said with a small shrug, alight blush covered her cheeks and she cursed herself for bringing it up it all.

Twenty five minutes of awkward conversation later Sev muttered _Tempus _and saw it was three minutes to midnight when they both fell silent. Thrice more Sev tried out the spell to check the time as they both fidgeted in silence when she blew out a long breathe.

"This is stupid, there is twenty seconds to new year's lets kiss and get it over with because believe me we both nee loads of good luck this year." She said quickly, shifted near him.

He leant towards her and pulled her closer linking his fingers behind her back and looked down at her for a long second when she did nothing but lean towards him he pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was slow as his lips moved over hers expertly to which she responded enthusiastically. When he finally pulled back, she settled against him comfortable and they sat there in silence.

"Something was missing." She stated in dismay and he grunted in response.

"No goose bumps and fireworks for you too, huh." Severus said as she snuggled in closer to him.

"Nope, felt like I was kissing a cousin or something like, just didn't fit." She said sadly "shame too, you are great at cuddling."

"Just because we are not kissing doesn't mean we can't cuddle." Sev said a while later and she just smiled in return.

It was just as Sev was dozing off when she mumbled sleepily into his shoulder "We have to work on your hair. Next time I am cutting it." This was successful in chasing off his sleep for quite some time.

* * *

Sirius turned on his side with his hand under his head and looked at the other two beds with James and Remus sleeping on them soundly well into the night. Fisting his hands in frustration he turned again lying on his back, with his arm was over his eyes. Half hour later, he couldn't do it anymore. Sleep wouldn't come to him; he tried to clear his mind, count sheep but nothing worked.

Hermione, he thought about her with some frustration. She didn't want him to sleep. He tried to forget about her, but Merlin there was just something… something that drew him to her. 'Merlin, he was turning into a girl.' He thought disgusted with himself with the way he was reacting.

"I like Hermione." He mumbled aloud to himself and shook his head in disbelief. "I like her." He repeated with a wry laugh and he thumped his left hand on the bed.

"Settle, down mate; we both know you like her." Remus growled from the other bed interrupting his monologue.

"How did you know?" He asked aloud to Remus.

"That's easy, not once did you call her a bird…" James said with sleep laden voice.

"…neither did you tell us that you wanted to sleep with her..." Remus continued with his eyes closed.

"…you haven't tried to flirt with her either." James piped up rolling over to look at the both of them.

"So what are you going to do now?" James asked him wiggling his eyebrows.

"What do you think I should do?" Sirius shot back. "Ask her out every time I look at her, like you did with Lily?"

"Hey." James protested.

"Merlin, I would have never thought this day would ever come." Remus said as he sat up suddenly alert.

"What are you taking about?" Sirius asked a little irritated now.

"You are nervous about Hermione." Remus said with a small laugh. James jerked awake and looked at Sirius with a different intensity "He really likes her." He said to himself and then hooted with laughter with Remus joining in.

"Shut up." He yelled at them and when they didn't stop laughing he threw his socks at them.

"Sirius Black, the so called 'ladies' man' stumped by our own Hermione Granger." James said chuckling as he wiped his eyes clear.

"Shut your trap already and tell me what to do next."

"No clue mate, if I knew something don't you think I would have Lily as my girlfriend by now." James said shrugging as he lay back down.

"What about you?" Sirius asked Remus.

"What about me? I rarely date anyone because of my 'furry little problem'; speaking of my problem, Hermione knows." Remus said with an off-hand shrug.

"How in the word did she know?" James asked intrigued after a moment of silence as he and Sirius processed what just happened.

"She said that she knew someone who had my problem too so knew what to look for signs."

"So, are we okay with Hermione knowing about you?" Sirius asked him.

"Yeah, in fact she made me Wolfsbane potion for me."

"Oh!" Sirius said his brows furrowed.

"What?" James asked looking at him.

"You don't suppose Hermione has a crush on you, do you?" Sirius asked Remus hesitantly.

"Nah, that's just how Hermione is. She is very helpful." Remus said seriously knowing how important it was to Sirius.

"Yeah mate, the first day I met her late at night in the commons room and she gave me dreamless sleep potion." James added. Sirius nodded in relief and then looked at his two best mates with a wry smile on his face.

"Anyway, we diverted from the main topic. How does Sirius woo Hermione?" Remus said getting back on track.

"Well, you could always ask Lily, Alice, Melody and Dorcas for help, they'll help you." James suggested.

"Or?" Sirius asked them both.

"Or you can ask my mom, she may give you tips…" James trailed off making a face.

Sirius lay back on the bed with an audible 'thump' and said "I am doomed!"

* * *

_1__st__ week of January – the day Hogwarts re-opens after holidays _

Hermione wasn't at the library between old and dusty books at 6.30 in the evening the day her 'friends' were returning to Hogwarts after a long break, before dinner just because she was avoiding certain someone. No she just had too much to do to meet and greet them.

"There you are." An hour or so had passed when Malfoy's sorry Draco's voice brought her out her thoughts as she looked up at him. There he was, his uniform immaculately ironed with his house Slytherin's cloak tie in a perfect knot at his throat as he stood with his back resting on an old bookshelf. He was her friend. Even best friend as he was the only one she could talk too without remembering all the lies.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him as re-tied he hair.

"Looking for you, I knew you would be somewhere in the library. Come on let's get you some dinner, I knew you would forget to eat if someone didn't remind you." Chuckling she packed the bag and walked towards the Great Hall with Draco beside her.

"You know, now that the others are here I can't talk to you as freely as before." Draco said.

"Oh! That reminds me…" Hermione trailed away as stopped in the middle of hallway and started to dig into her back, a few seconds later she took out a long piece of paper and handed it to him.

"I didn't know I had to bring you a gift too, but thank you so much for this blank, ordinary parchment." Draco said with a smirk as she punched him on his arm

"What's with me and your punching?" He muttered under her breath which Hermione graciously pretended to ignore.

"Look here… I have one too; its twin. So whenever you want to, write something in it and my will start vibrating signaling me to answer. This way we can talk without any problem." She said with a smug smile as they started walking again.

"Very impressive, so this is what you do when you spend hours together in the library." Draco mused as he shrunk it and put it away.

"What did you think I did in the library?" She asked him raising an eyebrow at him.

"Thoughts which are better left unsaid." He replied waggling his eyebrows and a sly smirk. Hermione's jaw dropped when she understood his implication and made after him as he quickly entered the great hall.

Carefully regulating her breathing she made her way to the nearest empty space on the Gryffindor table, she took out her parchment and quill and quickly muttered a spell at it and immediately she heard a loud curse come from the Slytherin's table. With a barely concealed smirk she put it all away and looked up into Sirius's eyes.

'_His eyes are really grey, almost stormy." _The thought passed her mind before she could stop it. Quickly looking away she found herself right in middle on the marauders and her dorm roommates.

"You looked quite devious two minutes ago." Melody asked sipping her pumpkin juice from her goblet.

"Nothing important, it's already handled." She said with a smirk eerily similar to Malfoy's.

"Enough about me how were your holidays?" Hermione asked others easily deflecting the attention away from her.

"So what were you scribbling?" Sirius asked as the others spoke among them. She frowned in fake confusion and he smirked and said "I saw how you turned everyone's attention away from yourself, you never did answer." Sirius commented looking at Hermione. She turned towards him and gave a sly smirk and turned towards the others as he huffed out a laugh.

* * *

It was the first DADA class after the holidays and Professor Avery decided to start on Patronus. There was a nervous energy in the Gryffindor and Slytherin combined class. "Do you think we can make corporal Patronuses today?" Peter squeaked his eyes wide and excited.

"I don't know I heard it was tough." Lily said as she fingered her wand and continued "…but I have read all I can about Patronuses, it seems pretty simple, I mean how tough can it be?" she asked rhetorically.

Hermione looked at her from the corner of her eye but kept her face neutral and thought how alike she and Lily were. She remembered when Harry had taught her with the rest of D.A. and then she thought of the time when Voldemort had sent Dementors to attack on Hogwarts at the middle of sixth year and it had been so difficult for her to scrap together a happy memory and then she had closed her eyes and thought of her in white dress walking down the aisle, with her heart bursting with happiness, it was a couple of days later when she realized that it was her mother walking down the aisle to her father one the photographs lining the walls of her house.

Shaking herself of the sudden melancholy she sat up straight and saw everyone around her standing and practicing with a very familiar spell on their lips. She sat with her back straight she made the appropriate wand movements and non-verbally cast the spell and then came her Patronus. It had change, instead on her usual otter it was a stag; Harry.

A hush fell over the classroom as everyone turned to look at the graceful stag roam around the room; she heard a harsh whished by Sirius beside as he whispered "James." to someone when the quite broke.

"Just wonderful, fifteen points to Gryffindor." Professor Avery declared and said "Looks like you may have practiced this before."

"Yes, I learned it in my firth year." She said in a tone which invited no questions. Hermione wasn't sure but for a split of a second it looked that Professor Avery was impressed but it was well hidden before she could blink.

"Very well, how about you help the others?" He told her as he continued to make the rounds. She turned towards James, Sirius and Remus and knew she had a lot to explain to them.

It had taken a better part of an hour for her to explain them with part lies and half-truths how her brilliant 3rd year professor had taught her, Harry and Ron had taught them the art of _Patronus_.


	17. James and Lily

A/N: Okay College started so please forgive this chapter, I guarantee next one will be good but it will take some time. And again this chapter is not beta'd so forgive the mistakes you see.

* * *

_10__th__ February, 9:27 p.m._

She hadn't been sleeping well for the last couple of days. Insomnia has become her best friend lately. Spending nights after sleepless nights in bed, lying awake with nothing to do except count sheeps took a lot out of her. The result were red tinged eyes, constant yawning, dark circles under her eyes, drooping eyes and absolutely no concentration.

It was after dinner she found herself with the others, all together sitting on the couches and on the floor as the mood struck. She was squashed between Sirius and Remus as she struggled to not loose herself in her thoughts – again and observed Lily as James was sitting opposite to her on the floor with Peter and Lily sat with Melody and Alice on the other three seater.

The sly glances with a mix of frowns hurt and uncertain thoughtful looks thrown at James by Lily were not going un-noticed and Hermione was surprised to see James hold out on her for so long. But it was time, tomorrow she would tell James to ask her in a private and sophisticated way… may be make him practice with her a few times so everything goes smoothly. Hermione thought smugly _'literally making history' _and snuggled into the sofa even more with two warm bodies beside her and a smooth low conversation as background voices, she felt her eyes close and she rested her head on Remus's shoulder.

As her eyes were closed and her face was averted, she didn't see the narrowed eyed 'I am going to kill you' look Sirius shot at Remus as he flinched in return and stiffened in response. Hermione grumbled, adjusting herself next to him for a better angle to rest her head as Remus started fidgeting when James added his own look with a smirk.

Finally when Remus couldn't stay at a place, Hermione roughly sat up, her eyes gritty with sleep and spoke in clenched teeth to him "I am not molesting you, I just want a place to rest my head so I can get some shut-eye; so stop fidgeting like a six year old and sit still." And returned to her seat and fell into a light nap.

* * *

_11__th__ February, 8:23 a.m. _

She walked into the Great Hall with better spirits. She had slept through the whole night, she never did wake up after she fell asleep on Remus's shoulder and it looked like they decided against to wake her or shift her to her bed in her dorm room which she was eternally grateful for because she knew for a fact that if she had moved to her bed, she would have had a restless night again. She had gotten up on the sofa with a light blanket over her just as the common room was filling up with the other students. Quickly making her way to her dorm room she changed into her uniform and made her way down and saw Remus, Sirius and James making their way out. She ran towards them and wrapped Remus in a tight hug and stepped back. "Thanks." She said breathing heavily.

Remus frowned down at her and glanced at Sirius who was trying to create a hole on his forehead with his steady gaze and said "For what?"

"For yesterday, I haven't been sleeping so well so thanks." She said shrugging and walked with them to the Great Hall suddenly starving. Looking at James she remembered and said "James, you are taking Lily to Hogsmeade for Valentine's day."

"I am?" He said surprised as he stood still in shock before following her.

"Yeah, I have enough proof that she will say yes to you, the only thing left to do is rehearse with me how you will ask her out."

"I think I am capable of doing that on my own." He said with a sniff. He only looked back at him as Remus and Sirius snickered aloud. Sighing he nodded.

"So today at six thirty meet me at the Room of Requirement and tomorrow morning your love life will finally have a start." Hermione told him with a smirk just as she entered the Hall.

* * *

_Next Day, 8:36 a.m._

They were just outside the Great Hall as Hermione pressed over his shoulder to smooth over the fabric as he 'recited' the steps he was going to take today as they all stood around him in silence. When he finished, he shakily ran his hand over his hair and made his way into the Hall. They all entered and saw James standing behind Lily as he bent down and spoke to her quietly. There were a lot of furrowed eyebrows and shaking of heads as they whispered together as the whole table started realizing that something was going on with them; five minutes of civil conversation without shouting at each other was some kind of a record. And then it happened she was nodding; her eyes bright and stood up hugging him with all her might as she said ''Yes, Yes, Yes…" as the whole Hall looked at then with silent awe.

But she wasn't watching them, she was looking at Severus and how his un-emotional mask he was wearing everyday didn't even slip as he looked at the two of them, his eyes as blank as ever and then he was looking at her and she managed to say _'sorry' _as she brushed her mind with his before he tore his gaze and made his way out to the grounds, away from anyone. Wanting to give him some place, she left his alone for now.

She looked back to the new golden-couple when she felt Sirius staring at her. Looking up at him, into his fathomless grey eyes she gave into the fantasy of then together just for a second. He was sinfully handsome, all the marauders were – with the exception of Peter, and the way he carried himself were elegant and poised, but still with hint of laziness but never so much that it was taken as rude. He was beautiful, witty, smart, and could probably charm anyone he wanted. She wondered why he wanted her; maybe he just wanted to shag her. But she wasn't ugly either, far from it. She at five feet, seven inches, her eyes were of almond shaped and a shade of brown with flicks of green, if one would stare at them long enough, with long dark lashes that lined them. Her skin was porcelain and smooth, and her hair had settled down from bushy and uncontrollable to a silky, smooth and manageable dark brown. She had finally grown into her body in the middle of sixth year, quite late compared to Lavender's and Ginny's but her figure had filled out rather beautifully.

She knew he wanted her ever since the meeting and maybe… maybe she could she thought still looking into his eyes as he moved towards her slightly, but she quickly came to her senses when James came running towards her and hugged her thanking her for making it real.

Real… she smiled at him and made a quick excuse and made her way to the library. It was really childish of her to think and dream now with so many of her _future _friends depending on her added to that first she had to save James and Lily so Harry could live the life he was supposed to. She was leaning on the one of the book shelves as she skimmed over _Everything Arithmancy_ when she saw him walking towards her. She smiled at him and put back the book in its place and moved near him and looked up at him.

"What's up?" she asked his tucking her hair back.

"I just wanted to say thanks for what you did with James and Lily." Sirius said copying her as he rested his back on the bookshelves, with his hands in his pocket.

"There is no need to thank me, all I did was give them a push in the right direction." She shrugged.

"Anyway, thank you." He said standing straight up, he walked towards her. She mimicked him and straightened too with her back to the shelves; she had nowhere to go and tried to calm her heart when he stopped in front of her and bent down,

"W-What are you doing?" she stuttered looking up at him as her eyes stole a glance of his lips and licked her own unconsciously.

"Thanking you." He said with a smirk and then pressed his lips to hers and then he was gone.


End file.
